The Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Hospital Foundation, Inc., the social arm of the Saint Elizabeth Hospital, caters to giving free cleft lip and palate operations to indigent children since 1999. As a background, unresolved cleft deformities leave children in isolation, oftentimes finding it hard to eat, speak and breathe. Through cleft surgery, the issue is addressed easily as the transformation is immediate. In Region XII alone, thousands of children are unfortunate victims to this. Hence, our institution embraced the challenge of providing free corrective surgeries to them as a manifestation of our corporate responsibility to the community at hand.
It has a well-trained staff dedicated to the care of children operated on and has established programs to monitor each child through maturity, providing post-operative care to them in the areas of speech rehabilitation, dental care and in a few cases, psychological counselling (for children aged between 7 to 12) and school scholarships. The foundation works hand-in-hand with the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation and the Smile Train in ensuring that children suffering from this unfortunate condition are given back their chance to smile.
