Mission Smile Completes 2 Years of Partnership with the Govt. of Tripura

We’re happy to announce that on 6th June 2017, Mission Smile has completed two years of successful partnership with the Government of Tripura.  

Our partnership with Tripura, the third smallest state of India, however started long before the MoU was officially signed with the Govt. of Tripura on 7th June 2015. In fact, our partnership with Tripura dates back to September 2013 when, for the first time, 14 patients from Tripura found their way to the Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre. To our GC4 team in Guwahati, it didn’t matter whether Mission Smile was in partnership with Tripura or not, they simply followed our policy of “We do not turn back anyone from our doors” and went ahead in providing surgeries to 13 of those 14 patients from Tripura. The entire expense of the surgeries was borne by Mission Smile. Our encounter with this group of patients gave us an understanding about the acute necessity of cleft care in the state of Tripura.

In November 2014, the first Cleft Care Camp was conducted by our team from Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre (GC4) in Agartala with patient recruitment, hospital infrastructure and other support from the state government. The Camp was conducted at the Dr BRAM Hospital, Tripura Medical College.

In February 2015, another Cleft Care Camp followed. By this time, the state government understood our mission and being convinced about the need of cleft surgeries in Tripura, decided to forge a partnership with Mission Smile. The first MoU was thus signed by Dr Sandeep N Mahatme, Mission Director of National Health Mission-Tripura on behalf of the Govt. of Tripura and Col. (Retd.) Shivaji Samaddar – COO of Mission Smile on June 7, 2015. Since then Mission Smile has conducted seven Cleft Care Camps in the partner hospital, Dr BRAM Hospital, which is now one of the signatories of the tripartite MoU.

Till date, Mission Smile has given medical examination to 700 patients and has provided surgeries to 358 cleft patients of Tripura. Ever since, the Government of Tripura, National Health Mission- Tripura RBSK, Dr BRAM Hospital have remained strong pillars without which partners Mission Smile would have struggled to do its work in this state.

The MoU between the Government of Tripura and Mission Smile was renewed last year under the stewardship of the current Mission Director Dr Shailesh K Yadav, IAS and is expected to be renewed again this year – this is necessary so that the Government with support from Mission Smile can continue to provide quality care to children and young adults suffering from cleft in Tripura.

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