Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain promised to launch a national programme for the rehabilitation of children born with cleft lips and palates.
The minister made this commitment on Wednesday night while addressing a gala dinner at the Gulshan Club in the capital, held to mark 8th International Friendship Medical Mission of Smile Asia in Dhaka.
The event celebrated the successful completion of a programme titled “A Promise for a New Smile,” an initiative by the Government Employee Hospital in collaboration with Smile Asia, the Ministry of Public Administration, Dhaka Bank, and the SAJIDA Foundation.
Through this mission, 69 children with cleft lips and palates received free reconstructive surgeries.
Speaking at the ceremony, the health minister noted that the helplessness and emotional distress of children born with these congenital conditions are deeply moving.
He praised the dedicated team of expert foreign doctors, anaesthesiologists, and nurses who, with the full cooperation of the Government Employee Hospital, successfully performed the surgeries to bring smiles back to the children’s faces. Sakhawat urged Smile Asia and the SAJIDA Foundation to undertake similar initiatives in the future.
He further said when Smile Asia returns for future missions, the government will transform the initiative into a national programme to provide services on a much larger scale to people across the country.
The ceremony was attended by Dhaka Bank PLC Managing Director and CEO Osman Ershad Faiz, SAJIDA Foundation CEO Zahida Fizza Kabir, Smile Asia Secretary-General Abhimanyu Talukdar, and Government Employee Hospital Director General (Additional Secretary) Md A Razzak Sarkar, among others.
