The Dubai Duty Free Foundation has donated $1.5 million to Smile Train, the world's largest charity dedicated to repairing cleft lip and cleft palate deformities in children.
It is the largest single donation earmarked for Southeast Asia received by Smile Train since the charity was established in 1999, according to a press release.
The $1.5 million donation is to be used over a three-year period at two Smile Train partner centers in the Philippines: the Philippine Band of Mercy in Manila and the Maharlika Center in Davao City, Mindanao. The funds will be used to recruit additional staff, purchase vehicles and equipment, and perform 3,800 cleft surgeries.
Smile Train, which has a global network of thousands of partner hospitals and participating cleft surgeons in 76 of the world’s poorest countries, estimates that approximately 4,400 children are born with cleft lip and palate deformities annually in the Philippines and that there is a backlog of 150,000 untreated clefts.
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