Journal Entry #3

THE JOURNEY HOME JOURNAL

by: Bobby Manzano, President & Executive Director, OSP

The operating rooms in our four mission sites have fallen silent as I started writing this journal entry.  The tally for the last day of surgery:  35.

 

Since we started The Journey Home on October 25, we have provided 541 free reconstructive surgeries, 6,110 free dental treatments and over 7,000 free medical evaluations to indigents in Koronadal, Naga, Angeles, Silay and Cagayan de Oro.

  

We will transform more lives when we commence the third and final leg on November 22 in four more sites: Manila, Cebu, Dasmarinas and General Santos.

 

By the time I finish this piece and send it out (I took a break to see to the preparations and attend the customary end-of-mission dinner), many of our foreign volunteers would have returned to their home country carrying back with them not only photographs and souvenirs of the people and places they’ve visited, but also wonderful memories of the experience.

 

Performers in colorful mask and costume 

welcome volunteers in Silay City

Everywhere we went during this second leg of The Journey Home, we were received with so much genuine warmth and hospitality. We felt more than just welcome --- we felt needed.  It was an uplifting and very humbling experience.

Now, I understand how Dr. Bill and Kathy felt when they went on their first ever mission to Naga 30 years ago. Now, I know why they wanted to return for the 250 children they weren’t able to treat then.

Operation Smile brings hope and healing. Cleft children and their loved ones await our arrival because they have no one else to turn to.  We have a responsibility to help them for the simple reason that we can. Each and every one of us is an agent of change, a catalyst for transformation. It’s an awesome responsibility but one that we must do.

 

Seeing our volunteers in very high spirit at the thanksgiving dinner we threw for them upon their return to Manila from the mission sites, I am certain that we will keep fulfilling this responsibility for as long as there is one child in one corner of the globe who suffers from cleft abnormality.
 

For taking care of our volunteers during their stay in the mission sites, and making them feel at home, I would like to thank our site partners as follows:

1.    in Naga City, the Metro Naga Development, the Naga City Government and the Camarines Sur Provincial Government;

2.    in Angeles City, the Kapampangan Development Foundation, the Angeles City Government, the Social Action Center of Pampanga, the Rotary Club of Mabalacat;

3.     in Silay City, the HOPE Volunteers Foundation and its partner organizations, the Negros Occidental Provincial Government, the Silay City Government and the Bacolod City Government; and

4.    in Cagayan de Oro, the Xavier Science Foundation and the Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental.

I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to the administrators and staff of our partner hospitals, namely, the Bicol Medical Center, the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center, the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital, and the Northern Mindanao Medical Center.  They provided critical support for our mission and form part of the 1,000 volunteers we mobilized for The Journey Home.

Smile Ambassadors Chadleen (top), 

Janine and Shamcey (middle) 

and Nicole (above)

Volunteers are the lifeblood of Operation Smile, and when I talk of volunteers I refer also to people in the non-medical profession.  Our medical professionals are the best in the world.  Our volunteers from other professions are as committed and as essential.  They help organize our missions, raise funds for us, and spread the word about our cause.

For The Journey Home, many such people rallied to our call, from Binibining Pilipinas titleholders Janine Tugonon, Nicole Schmitz, Shamcey Supsup to popular actors Marvin Agustin and Jewel Mische to our former patients Chadleen Lacdo-o, Catherine Bandol, May Klaire Parparan and Angel Torres. 

A group of youths, who engage in online chats and call themselves Chatters Care for Kids, launched an information drive on the web to raise awareness for our mission.  Students of the Colegio de Sta. Isabel in Naga and Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro did manning duties in our mission sites.   An entrepreneur, Rica Buenaflor, and her friend, Chelly Ontengco, handled the  logistical arrangements in our Naga site.

To all who took part in the first leg and second leg of The Journey Home, please feel free to share your anecdotes, observations and reflections on this blogspot.   It was a pleasure and a privilege to work with you and I and my team look forward to working with you again, hopefully soon.

Salute to all of you!