The Operation Smile foundation will launch its new global initiative, “Women in Medicine” program, in Asia with an all-female international surgical and educational mission in Cebu City from October 10 to 15.
The project will highlight women’s critical role in the health care system in the Philippines and encourage them to take on leadership roles in their professions.
The “Women in Medicine” initiative is piloted in the Philippines, where Operation Smile started in 1982, as well as in Morocco, Malawi, and Peru.
The plan is to roll out the program in all 35 Operation Smile program countries.
“Women in Medicine is central to our 10-year goal of increasing access to quality care for one million patients around the world, and to help build global health infrastructure. There are five million patients in need of cleft care in the countries we work in, and five billion people who lack access to safe surgery across the world. We can’t address this need without more women in the health care arena,” Kathleen Magee, Operation Smile co-founder and president, said in a recent interview.
The program educates women on advanced medical practices, empower them to become leaders in global medicine, expand opportunities for female health care workers in underserved communities, and elevate the quality of cleft care, Magee said.
The Cebu launch will kick off with a one-day forum on women empowerment in the medical field, followed by four days of free surgeries and care for 80 children with cleft lip and cleft palate at the Cebu City Medical Center.
In partnership with its in-country foundation, Operation Smile Philippines, longtime Cebu ally MSY Charitable Foundation, and the city government, Operation Smile assembled a team of 60 volunteer cleft care professionals from 12 countries.
The multinational team comprises plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, dentists, speech therapists, child life specialists, and biomedical technicians from the United States, Vietnam, Australia, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Sweden, United Kingdom, Egypt, South Africa, and the Philippines.
“Our ultimate goal is to inspire and enable women to take on leadership roles in the medical field so they can help shape policies that would attract more women into the fold and equip them with global-standard skills to widen access to safe surgery and quality cleft care,” said Martin Yeung, Operation Smile Philippines trustee and MSY Charitable Foundation chief.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said women comprise 70 percent of health professionals across the world.
The figure is even higher in the Philippines where women account for 75 percent of nearly 500,000 health professionals, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a 2018 survey.
Despite the seeming large number, the Philippines still lacks 290,000 healthcare workers to meet the WHO-recommended ratio of 44.5 health workers for every 10,000 of the population, the Human Resources for Health Network (HRHN) estimated in a 2019 study.
HRHN, the multi-sectoral agency that the Department of Health created to align public health policies and implementation, said less than 1 percent of employed Filipinos are working as health professionals. (PNA)
