Operation of hope to conduct free surgeries at Mpilo

Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, [email protected] 

OPERATION of Hope, a United States-based organisation that provides free, life-changing surgery and health care for children, is set to conduct this year’s edition of surgeries for children born with cleft lips and pallets from May 5 to 12 at Mpilo Central Hospital

Over 361 children and adults have benefited from the Operation of Hope’s annual programme. The organisation will be on its 33rd mission to Zimbabwe.

Next month’s surgeries will mark 12 years since Operation of Hope began working at Mpilo Central Hospital.

Operation of Hope Mission is a charity-based organisation that offers free surgical operations to children and adults with cleft lip, cleft palate, or other facial deformations. 

In an interview yesterday, Mpilo Central Hospital public relations officer, Matron Norma Mabhena said those eligible and interested should start registering with her office. 

“Operation of Hope started doing operations at Mpilo in 2016. They planned to offer services every May of each year, but due to Covid-19, the services were suspended in 2020 and 2021,” she said.

“Their surgical camps used to be one week long before Covid-19 but now they stretch up to two weeks to cater for more. 

“A total of 361 cases have since been done so far, and the highest being in 2022 where a total of 113 people were assisted with surgeries that include nose reconstruction, cleft lip repair and cleft palate repair.” 

Matron Mabhena said members of the public in need of the service should contact the hospital on +263772433627 or send a WhatsApp to the foundation’s chief executive officer Dr Jennifer Trubenbach on +19494631795 or email [email protected].

“In 2016, beneficiaries stood at 18 and the figure went up to 43 the following year. 

The following year the figure went up to 51 and 52 in 2019. Last year a total of 84 beneficiaries from across the country received surgeries,” she said.

The volunteer team is drawn from the US, the UK, India, Portugal, Australia, Canada and Zimbabwe. 

“Operation of Hope Worldwide has performed over 5 000 free surgeries in Zimbabwe since 2006.”