Journal Entry # 8

THE JOURNEY HOME JOURNAL

by: Bobby Manzano, President & Executive Director, OSP

With DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman

By the time the operating room closes today in our four mission sites, we would have exceeded the 1,000 mark in reconstructive surgery.  I don’t have today’s tally yet, but as of yesterday, we’ve already done 972, including the 541 we did in five other mission sites during the first and second legs of The Journey Home. 

Hurrah to our volunteers!  You’ve given these children, and their family, an early Christmas gift they will treasure forever.   You’ve given them a life.

Grisha

Early this week, I met someone whom Operation Smile gave this gift of life to 17 years ago. I learned that he was 15 when he went to our mission site in a remote town in Russia.  Some local doctor had repaired his cleft lip and a cleft palate but they were so badly done they needed to be revised.  But instead of asking for a new surgery immediately, he volunteered to help as translator and all-around runner for the mission.  It was only towards the end of the mission that our doctors had the time to attend to him. The re-work took three surgeries, one of which had to be performed in Norfolk.  He has been an Operation Smile volunteer since, and eventually worked his way through medical school.  He’s now in our Cebu mission site passing on the gift to someone else.  His name is Grisha. 

Can you imagine what Grisha’s life would be today had we not operated on him?

The challenge we face now is how to take Operation Smile to the next level so that we can spread the gift to more people.  We cannot go it alone.  We’ve accomplished a lot in the past 30 years.  However, there remains a huge backlog of cleft cases. No matter how much resources we mobilize, it will never be enough to address this problem.  We need to expand our reach and capabilities through strategic alliances with other sectors.  The government could be an ideal ally.  We could help each other out.

Yesterday, we met with Health Secretary Enrique Ona.  And this morning, we had a talk with Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman.  True enough, we discovered during our discussion common concerns and interests that can give rise to lasting partnerships.  We found areas where we can pool our expertise and network, and work together.

Certainly, the partnerships will not happen overnight.  There will be more brainstorming ahead. But the important thing is that we’ve taken the first step.

This is what we had intended The Journey Home to be: a journey to the past and to the future.  We wanted it to be the venue to showcase what Operation Smile is capable of.  We designed it to be a high-profile event so we would attract attention to our cause.  We aimed for it to be sentimental and celebratory to leverage the hype and emotion to open doors for us – and it did because of you. 

I couldn't thank you enough  for taking part in The Journey Home. you've given us a good head start.