Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Hong Lan,accompanied by the heads of the National Fund for Vietnamese Children(NFVC), visited children being treated for facial anomalies at theVietnam-Cuba Friendship Hospital, Hanoi on May 26.
She handed over gift packages worth 700,000 VND (32 USD) each, to 40children from different parts of the country, including Thanh Hoa, HaGiang and Thai Nguyen provinces.
The NFVC launchedits Operation Smile programme in 1994 to provide free cleft lip andpalate surgeries for children. Since 1997, a fund of the programme hasalso aided adolescents and adults.
About 25,000children with harelips, cleft palates, facial tumors and syndactyly havebeen offered free surgeries to date at a total cost of more than 63billion VND (2.9 million USD).
This year, theOperation Smile signed an agreement with the NFVC to provide 1,600disabled children nationwide with free surgery packages, includingtravel costs, living expense and surgery cost (around 8 million VND or366.5 USD each case).-VNA