The hallway was filled with balloons of different colors. Nervousness and joy were in the atmosphere. From the emergency room of one of Puerto Ordaz’s clinics, children could be seen sitting outside, waiting their turn. An operation that for some seems unremarkable but for the doctors means to change the life of one of those patients, and for patients it is the opportunity to recover their smile.
By La Patilla – Pableysa Ostos
Sep 04, 2022
More than 6 doctors make up these conferences that Fundación Guayana Sonríe has been carrying out for years. The non-profit organization was born as a dream of Dr. María Eugenia Guevara Casalta. “At that historical moment before the year 2000 there was a high incidence of children with cleft lip and palate, because they were not normally surgical corrected in (public) hospitals.”
“In Bolívar State there was a high incidence (of children affected). It was the third state with the highest incidence according to the statistics, the first two were: Mérida and Apure. So she (Dr. María Guevara) got worried. She was a dentist graduated from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) she had passed to the cleft lip and palate (treatment) area, at the UCV where there was a unit,” said Dr. Mariela Fuenmayor, current president of the foundation.
She described that Guevara began campaigning among her friends and at stoplights to raise funds. “And she began to operate with a plastic surgeon who was lent at that time in Ciudad Bolívar, to operate on them or they took them to Caracas, so she was putting together the foundation.”
It was not until 1999 when the foundation was registered. Guevara and Fuenmayor met in Bolívar state and made a great team. Since 2017, Mariela has assumed the reins of the foundation together with Esther Lazarde, vice president, the coordinator of the dental axis, Dr. Marianela Bruni, and another group of doctors who make up the board.
Changing Lifes
To date, the (NGO) “Fundación Guayana Sonríe” has carried out some 33 surgical sessions, operating and treating for more than 3,000 minors from 1999 to 2022. “In mid-2015 we realized that these children and their families needed other types of help, and we began to create the programs: Full belly, Mom, don’t hide from me, and Strong teeth,” said Fuenmayor.
These three programs are attached to the great project that is to operate for free on boys and girls with cleft lip and palate. In the program “Barriguita full” (Full Belly) was created to help malnourished children, because they couldn’t eat well, “they didn’t have enough to buy milk. The mothers were very stressed by the situation and their breast milk was dried out. It is a program where they were given the can of milk (formula) to feed the child, the NAN brand from 0-6 months, and from 6 months to one year. It was a program that covered from 0 months to a year, until they came out of malnutrition.”
While the program “Mamá no me escondas” (Mom Don’t Hide Me), is one that is responsible for the empowerment of women and adolescents to be able to insert them into society without complexes or social resentment. “Because it’s not just operating them, it’s inserting them into society, productive work, education without them feeling self-conscious, without resentments, making them feel happy,” explained Dr. Mariela. And finally there is the “Strong teeth” program, “these children are born with amelogenesis imperfecta or weakening of the enamel, for which extra fluoride was given to children and were place in priority care for caries.”
Constant Support
Dr. Fuenmayor highlights that the work carried out over the years has not only benefited boys and girls from Bolívar State, but also from other neighboring states. “We have supported the Venezuelan family because people come from different parts of Venezuela. We have helped more than 3,000 children, not only with surgery, but in functional orthopedics of the jaws, in repairing their smile, in putting on orthodontics, in giving them emotional support, legal support,” she added.
She adds that the participation is massive when these sessions are held, since there are many people who reach out to them, not only monetarily but also with contributions of refreshments, with good vibes and prayers. “All the people want to support by attending but they can’t because we have a limit.”
The doctor sent a message to the community: “right now there is a high level of methyl-mercury contamination due to the great destruction caused by illegal mining, this contamination reaches the Caroní municipality and even the surrounding states. And you inhale it, that makes you prone and can produce a child with a cleft lip and palate and not only the congenital malformation of the lip but any other. Because methyl-mercury is a neurotoxin that acts on the RNA of the cells, damaging it, and this is taking place in the state and its immediate neighbors.
Acceptance
The team of “Fundación Guayana Sonríe” extends to the community the call to support families and their children “we must support them because we want happy citizens, non-toxic citizens, empowered citizens, with high esteem, without social resentment so that they enter the educational, productive environment with the means for them to come in happy and fulfilled
“We don’t want children who grow up with anger or resentment. We want them to grow up in harmony and in peace and to be able to form their families without complexes, we must support them because this will contribute to a much more productive society,” they added.
The foundation is located in Alta Vista, specifically in the Nekuima Street, Mediterranean building, Puerto Ordaz. And if you want to collaborate, you can contact them through the phone numbers: +58 286 9625095 and +58 424 9572966.
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Read More: La Patilla – A group of doctors join forces to bring smiles back to children at Fundación Guayana Sonríe (Video)
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