A team of volunteers will leave Ireland shortly to perform about 200 cleft lip and palate operations in Africa, as part of a 25-year-old mission to help some of the poorest children in the world.
Each one-hour surgery would change the lives of patients as young as six months old, said Dr Michael Early, one of two Irish plastic surgeons with Operation Smile Ireland who will perform the surgery in Morocco, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Cleft lips and palates are facial deformities which occur in about one in every 800 live births, according to Dr Early, chairman of Operation Smile Ireland. Experts are unsure about the cause, but a cleft palate makes it difficult to feed a child.
"In some of the poorer African countries we find that we are only repairing cleft lips, because the children who are born with cleft palates have died," said Dr Early, who is based at the Children's University Hospital in Temple Street. The parents of patients who are too young for surgery are given help with feeding techniques and specially shaped bottles.
The 23 volunteers with Operation Smile Ireland will work in Africa for up to two weeks, while international Operation Smile volunteers will work in 40 sites across 22 other countries. The global 25th anniversary operation is called the World Journey of Smiles.
The Irish leg of the mission will cost about €150,000, Dr Early said, and includes another surgeon - David Orr, from Crumlin children's hospital - paediatricians, anaesthetists, nurses, dentists and medical students. Dr Early said the work is performed in local hospitals and is far more personal than the treatment offered in modern facilities.
"It is extraordinary walking into the operating theatre holding the child by the hand, or even carrying a baby in yourself. It is very, very personalised, and you are much more involved with the patient."
The patients and their families often can't comprehend why the doctors are doing the work, said Dr Early. "These are societies that are not used to the concept of volunteerism," he said. "They don't understand why you would be coming from the comfort of your own country and doing something for nothing."
It's extremely satisfying work, he said. "It reminded me of why I became a doctor in the first place," he said.