Anatomy of a Service Project: Cleft Lip/Palate Medical Mission in Manila

The local government unit (LGU) of MANILA is the administrator of the Sta. Ana Hospital, a 10-storey, fully air-conditioned, 300-bed capacity hospital giving free medical services for the poor residents of Manila, located at New Panaderos Street, Sta. Ana, within which a comprehensive cleft care center or the MANILA CLEFT CARE CENTER (MCCC) is established and currently operational.

The present demand, however, from Manila's indigent children for the services of MCCC requires more medical professionals and logistics support, including pre-operative evaluations for cleft lip and palate patients, surgeries for the cleft lip and palate patients, post-operative cleft care, speech therapy and orthodontic treatments in order to achieve LGU-MANILAs goal of zero cleft lip and palate cases among its residents, and possibly including the children of neighboring cities and municipalities.

RCM has initiated this medical mission service project after recognizing the needs of LGU-MANILA as its host city and has mobilized the Rotary Club network locally and overseas to provide the necessary health service providers and appropriate resources pursuant to Rotary International’s priorities, especially on maternal & child health as well as disease prevention & treatment.

The RC San Francisco (RCSF) has responded in a timely manner to RCM’s initiative in collaboration with its cooperating agency, Alliance for Smiles (AfS), to plan and perform a medical mission in Manila relative to this service project within the first semester of 2023 pursuant also to Rotary Internationals priorities, especially on maternal & child health as well as disease prevention and treatment.

AfS as the service provider officially designated by RCSF and wholly endorsed by RCM has commenced its standard due diligence activities related to the planning and implementation of the medical mission in Manila, which includes providing the team of health professionals and logistics support to ensure a successful conclusion of the service project;

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) among all parties concerned is scheduled to be signed face to face on December 1, 2022 at the Manila Hotel. The MOA aims to address by way of a medical mission the surgical and health care needs primarily of all indigent children of Manila, and secondarily the targeted indigent children of neighboring cities and municipalities to the extent possible, who are afflicted with cleft lip and/or palate disease. Specifically, the objectives of the MOA are:

1. Identify and prepare up to 120 PhilHealth registered children below 18 years old who are suffering from cleft lip and/or palate and being qualified under the medical mission to be implemented by the concerned parties of this arrangement no later than end of June 2023.

2. Avail of the designated hospital support staff and facilities for this objective, complete with the appropriate equipment as well as the necessary logistics/supplies for the successful conclusion of the medical mission.

3. Appoint the credentialed members who will compose the medical mission team from the United States of America (USA) as volunteers for rendering the surgical and health care needs of the qualified children patients.

4. Optimize the use of existing resources of all parties concerned while mobilizing other potential resource options to address any and all needed support for covering both minimum operating expenses and capital outlay for the successful conclusion of the medical mission.

A pre-medical mission is likewise scheduled between November 29 to December 1 to conduct a due diligence on the Sta. Ana Hospital facilities and staff capabilities.

RCM with RCSF as co-applicant are eying the district global grant (DGG) as potential funding source for providing the equipment and facilities that are sorely lacking in the hospital to ensure the medical mission becomes a success story. When concluded this endeavor may serve as a template for other similar service projects under RCM’s priorities with valued support from its international Rotary Club network like RCSF.