Since 1989, Uplift Internationale (UI), 501(c)3 nonprofit organization incorporated in Wheat Ridge, has worked to change the life of children born with facial deformities. These deformities rob these children of many of the functions of the mouth we take for granted: the charm of a smile, the pleasure of a whistle and the easy flow of speech.
Each year, Uplift Internationale conducts a mission trip to provide reparative surgical care to indigent children in the rural Philippines born with facial deformities, primarily clefts of the lip and palate. The care is provided by primarily Colorado-based healthcare professionals and outreach personnel who donate their time and expertise in addition to funding 85 percent to 100percentof their travel, meal and lodging expenses. The care is provided without cost to the children or their impoverished families and with minimal burden to the host hospitals. This humanitarian mission -- named Operation Taghoy (the Filipino word for whistle) -- helps to change a life of shame and ridicule to one of hope and promise.
Children born with these deformities, if left untreated, are at much greater risk than the general population to upper-respiratory infections, and to developing hearing deficits and speech impediments. Nearly all drop out of school from the taunts and teasing. Because of the tremendous impacts these clefts cause in the health, self-esteem and speech function of these children, mending this deformity truly does change the life of the patient. The surgery allows these children to move from the shadows of society, back into the light of the community.
Uplift Internationale was founded by Dr.
Jaime Yrastorza with the strong and active support of the Wheat Ridge Rotary Club and health care professionals associated with Exempla Lutheran Hospital. Individuals from both these organizations remain at the core of Uplift Internationale's support, leadership and volunteer networks.
This past spring, Uplift Internationale's 34-member team provided reparative care for 86 rural, indigent Filipinos, ranging in ages from 6 months to 19 years old.
Uplift Internationale is in the midst of planning a more ambitious undertaking with Operation Taghoy 2007, which will take place in Kalibo and Kabankalan. Kabankalan is a new site secured by successful outreach efforts during Operation Taghoy 2006. Uplift Internationale last visited Kalibo in 2005. There, the mission team will be operating on new patients, as well as following up on past patients, as available, and performing any necessary follow-up surgery.
As Kabankalan is a new site, it will have a large pool of prospective patients. To meet this need, for the first time ever, Uplift Internationale is recruiting volunteers to constitute four complete surgical teams. These teams, coupled with outreach staff, should bring the total to 46 volunteers. With this level of volunteers, Uplift Internationale aims to provide care to 100 patients.
Many organizations conduct overseas medical missions that provide excellent care to children in need. Uplift Internationale's objective is to set the highest standard in patient care of overseas medical missions by providing:
Optimum Care. Uplift Internationale is committed to providing surgery and post-operative care in the rural Philippines that is on par with that provided in the U.S. This commitment is reflected in the number and expertise of mission volunteers. UI seeks to bring all of the medical equipment and supplies needed instead of relying on that available at host hospitals. To that end, in 2005, Uplift Internationale purchased three portable anesthesia machines, which have greatly increased patient safety. Additionally, each year Uplift Internationale brings anesthesia monitors donated for the duration of the mission by Welch Allen.
Transfer of knowledge with local health care professionals. Uplift Internationale makes it a priority to share expertise with local colleagues. No where is this more evident than in Ormoc -- one of five venues for mission teams -- where Drs.
Roland Tomaro (surgeon) and
Bobby Dabatos (anesthesiologist), after receiving training over three years from Uplift Internationale volunteers, established a Cleft Clinic under the auspices of Uplift Internationale. These local doctors now repair, free of charge to the patient, two clefts per month, with the financial and ongoing training support of Uplift Internationale.
Life changing surgery to children in need. By focusing on reconstructive facial surgery, as opposed to routine medical care, Uplift Internationale changes lives that are often defined by ridicule and shame to ones of hope and promise.
Care in underserved rural areas. While 70 percentof Filipinos reside in rural areas, less than 40 percentof the hospital beds in the country are located there. Large cities are often the focus of other medical missions as they can lend more medical equipment and operating rooms to the mission and provide a larger pool of readily accessible patients. Uplift Internationale has instead chosen to operate in lesser-served rural areas.