Paige Havens (right) stands alongside Rotary Club of Saigon President Kieu Vuong Nguyen (center), and Alliance for Smiles Can Tho Mission Director Tina Fischlin (left) as they serve patients and their families in the recovery ward post-surgery.
(Editor’s Note: the writer has been a member of the Gwinnett community and involved with good causes for years. Now she has undertaken an international effort to make the world better.—eeb)
By Paige Havens
HOSCHTON, Ga. | Recently I had the unique opportunity to join a humanitarian medical mission to repair cleft lips and cleft palates in Vietnam.
In 2013 I learned of Alliance for Smiles’ (AFS) partnership with Rotary International via a passionate personal testimony of Tina Fischlin, a member of the Rotary Club of Greene-Putnam County. Tina’s first-hand accounts of how they were changing the lives of children all around the world prompted me to put an AFS mission trip on my bucket list.
A decade later the stars aligned, and I said “Yes!” to being a part of the first AFS mission team into Vietnam. The mission was made possible thanks to amazing collaboration between AFS, the Rotary Club of Saigon, and the Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital.
I was one of 16 members of an international volunteer mission team with members from the United States, Australia, and Sweden. The clinical roles included two plastic surgeons, a pediatrician, two anesthetists, five nurses, and a dental hygienist. Non-medical personnel included the mission director, ward coordinator, supply coordinator, photographer, and my role – the medical records keeper. We flew into Saigon and traveled south several hours to Can Tho, in the heart of the Mekong Delta.
We were up at 6 a.m. each day, down for breakfast at 6:30, and in route to the hospital at 7 a.m. Day 1 was a clinical assessment day where we evaluated 68 patients and determined who would receive surgery or not. Forty patients, from the ages of three months to 38 years, were accepted and scheduled for 50 different procedures over an eight-day period. The 12-hour surgery days were long but rewarding. Within a matter of a few hours the entire trajectory of each patient’s life was changed.
Every three minutes a child is born into the world with cleft (one in 700 babies). One in ten children born with cleft in underserved areas are killed shortly after birth. Families we served in Vietnam told how they personally struggled with that very decision. Those untreated will face many physical challenges (malnourishment, ear and respiratory infections, hearing loss, speech impediments, dental problems). They will also endure significant social and emotional challenges as many cultures consider cleft a curse or punishment that causes them to be hidden from society. Most never go to school, work, or build a life of their own.
Honestly, before I arrived, I really didn’t know much more about cleft than what I’d seen on television appeals. Now I’m vividly aware of how very treatable this medical condition is and how we can work together to make this treatment available globally.
I am honored to be a Rotarian who could serve the world in this way and now, as a member of the AFS volunteer corps, am proud to help transform the lives of children and communities impacted by cleft lip and palate by providing free comprehensive treatment, while training and equipping local teams to sustainably provide quality, long-term care.
So … what’s on your bucket list?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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