Rotary Club helps 50th harelip case

JAKARTA (JP): Rotary Club Jakarta's Menteng branch celebrated funding its 50th operation on people with harelips in Mandarin Oriental Jakarta yesterday, pledging to continue the social mission.

In her speech, the club's vice president Lusiana Hasan called on people to bring children with harelips to the club so they could undergo surgery free of charge.

"The free service, which covers transportation, the operation and medicine, is only for children under two years of age who come from poor families."

The latest patients assisted by the club, which has offered the service since 1995, were a group of seven children on Tuesday, Lusiana said.

She hailed the organizations which have provided material and financial support, including non-Rotarians, state-owned Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, privately run Bina Estetika Clinic, Sinar Pelangi Foundation, PT Organon Indonesia pharmaceutical company, and Rotarians from the Netherlands.

A staffer from the Ministry of Health, Nardo Gunawan, who represented minister Sujudi at the afternoon ceremony, gave a thumbs up to Menteng Rotarians for their outstanding efforts.

Nardo said the number of harelip cases in Indonesia was still relatively high and the government alone could not be relied on to provide the operations.

"It's not easy to assist people with harelips. First, they live in different places and they are sometimes hidden by their parents because it is thought that such a defect is a curse."

He said the Ministry of Health always gave its full support to the club's activities.

Nardo said he had no precise data about people who have harelips in Indonesia but a rough estimation indicated that one in every 1,000 newborns had a harelip.

He said the ministry planned to conduct a thorough study and produce accurate data on harelip cases. (emf)