The charity Operation Smile Mexico has received a generous donation from the estate of a deceased resident of Ajijic.
Benjamin Mijangos, executive director of Operation Smile Mexico, and board member Ruben Pettersson, this week received a check for 270,503 pesos (20,000 dollars) left to their project in the will of Jack Memmett, who died in Ajijic on April 24.
The check, presented by Aurora Michel of Actinver Bank, comes at a propitious time. Operation Smile will have a mission of 50 volunteers visiting Guadalajara next week to change the lives of about 125 kids born with cleft palates.Founded in Norfolk, Virginia in 1982, Operation Smile has performed over 250,000 operations in more than 60 countries. Volunteer surgeons from all over the world have operated on some 1,500 children in Mexico since Operation Smile began coming here in 2006.
The current mission in Guadalajara is the 22nd in Mexico to date. As well as new surgeries, medics will also carry out post-operative work on children attended to in the last mission to Guadalajara held in May. They will be working at the Jalisco Institute of Reconstructive Surgery (Av. Federalismo Norte 2022, Colonia Guadalupana, tel: 33-3824-3536.)
According to Pettersson, one in eight children around the world is born with a cleft palate.