More than 300 children with cleft lips and palates will receive free surgery over the next month thanks to a campaign launched Monday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Doctors from the HCMC hospital have volunteered to perform the surgeries at their facility as well as a general hospital in Binh Phuoc Province, north of the southern hub.

The surgery normally takes 45-60 minutes and costs about US$150 for all costs of the operation, according to OSV.

Viettel has donated VND1.5 billion ($87,600) to cover the campaign‘s total expenses.

The campaign brought 130 of the same surgeries to children in the northern region last July and more than 300 children in the Mekong Delta last December.

Each year, about 3,000 infants are born in Vietnam with cleft clips and/or cleft palates and some 15,000 children with the afflictions have not undergone surgery, according to the US-based Operation Smile Inc.

Established in 1989, the nongovernmental OSV, part of Operation Smile Inc., has helped more than 12,000 Vietnamese children and young adults with cleft lip and palate deformities through local and international surgical missions.

To mark the 20th anniversary of its operations in Vietnam, OSV will send groups of domestic and foreign surgeons to several cities and provinces November 5-15 to perform free surgeries for local children and adults with the deformities.

To register for the charity program, interested parties can call OSV at 04- 3 936 6955, 04-3 936 6956 or 04-3 936 6957.

Reported by Van Khoa