Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 19, 1992 TAG: 9203190403
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY WALKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But children in the Third World aren't so lucky. With little or no access to corrective surgery, they are condemned to live in isolation, hidden away by parents who consider deformities shameful.
The plight of these children was noticed by a Norfolk plastic surgeon, Dr. Bill Magee.
In 1982, Magee and his wife, Kathy, founded Operation Smile, a non-profit organization that sponsors surgical missions to the Third World. Operation Smile has corrected cleft lips and palates, club feet and other deformities through periodic missions to nine countries, including the Philippines, China, Vietnam and Colombia.
Operation Smile came to the attention of Roanoke County schoolteacher Marlene Wine through her involvement in the Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs. The federation supports Operation Smile with donations of money and supplies.
"When Women's Clubs accepted the project four years ago, I took it on to raise the materials," the 50-year-old Salem resident said.
Taking on charitable projects was nothing new to Wine, who is first vice president of the federation. She is especially fond of projects involving children.
Although she and her husband, Roland, have no children of their own, Wine has had "a couple thousand" children during her 29-year teaching career.
When Kathy Magee called in November to invite Wine on the mission to the Philippines, Wine's reaction was "When and where?"
"I'm a teacher; helping children just comes naturally," she says. "I wanted to go help the children any way possible."
Wine left for the Philippines on Feb. 6, taking a leave from teaching the sixth grade at Mason's Cove Elementary.
Her duties were to assist with the children before and after surgery and to supervise two teen-age girls. The girls were members of Happy Clubs, an adjunct organization of Operation Smile. Happy Club members collect money and supplies at their high schools and donate them to needy children during Operation Smile missions.
Wine had been to Mexico before, so she had some experience with life in less-developed countries. "I told the girls not to think American," she recalled.
Their destination was Naga, a small city in the Philippine hinterlands. "Most people live in shacks with thatched roofs. There is no electricity, no water."
The Americans stayed at the Aristocrat, "the No. 1 hotel in downtown Naga, where you turn up the air conditioning to keep out the street noise."
During their entire stay, they were accompanied by guards to protect them from kidnapping or robbery. When children popped balloons in the hospital waiting room, the guards thought at first it was gunfire.
Fortunately, there were no incidents, and Wine safely visited the Mother Teresa Orphanage and the Bobnoc Training School, where she and the girls distributed money, soap, toothbrushes, paper and pencils.
The nuns at the orphanage refused photographs or any kind of advertising to publicize their needs. "They believe if they're supposed to have this, God will provide," Wine says.
In addition to visiting the orphanage, Wine helped out the medical team at Bicol Regional Hospital. The 30-member team included plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, dentists and nurses from all over the United States. Like a M*A*S*H unit, they brought virtually all their medical supplies with them.
The team operated on an average of 30 children per day. Some of the children and their families had traveled by canoe for two or three days to reach the hospital.
Wine was responsible for entertaining the children while they were waiting for surgery. Most were ages 3 to 5, "little people who had never seen a doctor, never seen a hospital and were just a little bit afraid," she said.
One of her favorites was Francisco Matriz, age approximately 8. "Francisco came in a typical active young fellow," she remembers. "He's just all boy."
His smile, however, was marred by a cleft lip, which the surgeons repaired.
"The next day, you saw him and his family with smiles on their faces. They couldn't thank you enough. It was Operation Smile at work."
Mission completed, Wine returned to the United States on Feb. 18. The trip had cost her nothing; virtually all of Operation Smile's travel and housing expenses are underwritten by Northwest Airlines and Coca-Cola.
However, the sponsors don't cover everything. The children, for example, always need more money and supplies. Wine plans to push for increased support of Operation Smile when she is installed as president of the Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs in May.
by CNB