Patients need help because they may not:

- Know that operations are available
- Know how to go about obtaining an operation
- Have the money to reach the hospital
- Know how to negotiate the hospital system
- Have anywhere to stay while they do this
- The services provided by Yayasan Senyum are designed to overcome these problems.

The Smile Foundation of Bali (This article is published in THE MAG 26 – JUNE 2010)

by Rahman

Yayasan Senyum Bali

Yayasan Senyum Bali (The Smile Foundation of Bali) is an independent, non-profit organization striving to bring health care to people with craniofacial abnormalities. It was founded in 2005 by the Ubud resident Mary Northmore, who is also the Foundation’s Chairperson. The Foundation has an honorary board and seven staff, who look after all administrative work and patient coordination for hospital admissions.

The Foundation deals with patients suffering from disabilities such as cleft lip and palate, as well as a wide variety of other craniofacial disabilities. Most of these patients come from the mountains of Bali and other islands in Eastern Indonesia, where appropriate medical treatment is extremely unlikely.

Patients are housed at the Yayasan Senyum Bali Smile House in Denpasar while completing pre-operation procedures at either RSUP Sanglah or at private hospitals in Denpasar, where Bali’s two Plastic Surgeons conduct their surgery. The Foundation’s Patient Coordinator assists the patients through the pre and post operative procedures. After their surgery, patients spend two or three days in hospital for postoperative care then return to the Yayasan Senyum Bali Smile House for a similar period of recuperation before returning to their villages. During their stay at the Yayasan Senyum Bali Smile House, patients and their escorts (i.e. one family member) are provided full board.

All financial aspects of Yayasan Senyum Bali are administered by a qualified accountant, and independently audited on an annual basis. The Foundation runs solely on donations and the support of the volunteers. Yayasan Senyum Bali works to raise funding for craniofacial surgeries and to establish partnerships with various organizations and medical facilities to provide logistical and medical support for the patients.

These include:
•    Return transport to attend hospital appointments.
•    Accommodation at the Yayasan Senyum Bali Smile House in Denpasar – before & after operations in Denpasar.
•    Emotional and logistical support as patients and their attending family members progress through the health care system.
•    Making all necessary arrangements including applications for passports, visas and flight bookings to Australia for those severe cases in need of surgery at the Australian Craniofacial Unit in Adelaide, Australia.

Smile Shops

Yayasan Senyum Bali operates two charity shops (The Smile Shops): one in Ubud, which has been in existence since 2006 and another in Denpasar, opened in March 2010. These Smile Shops sell donated goods both new and used and have been highly successful in assisting in the generating of funds. The funds provided by the shops cover all Yayasan Senyum Bali administrative costs. This means that all donated money is spent on directly helping patients. Both charity shops are managed by a shop assistant and a number of dedicated volunteers who work various rosters to enable the shops’ smooth operation.

Yayasan Senyum Bali’s mission is to bring health care to people with craniofacial disabilities; this is including both clefts lip and palate. It is the yayasan’s mission also to be able to assists patients from all over Indonesia particulary Bali, NTB and eastern part of Indonesia.

The Yayasan is proud to be in partnership with Badan Koordinasi Kegiatan Kesejahteraan Sosial /BK3S (Coordinating Council for Social Welfare Activity) of Kupang Nusa Tenggara Timur and the local government bodies.

This partnership results findings of large number of Cleft patients, which then followed by Cleft operation Projects. The first Projects as reported in our previous Senyum update was done in November 2009.

The Second Operation project was held On 24th to 28th July 2010 in Ende, NTT where 54 operations were successfully done .this project was also supported by team of medical surgeons and doctors from Universitas Brawijaya Malang, under the supervision of Prof.Dr.dr.Bambang Pardjianto, SpB,SpBP.  Followed by another batch of operation in Soe, scheduled for 1st to 5th August 2010. Number of operation scheduled to be operated in Soe is 50 operations.

The Founder & Chair of Yayasan Senyum Bali, Mary Northmore accompanied by the Yayasan’s operations manager, Sukma Dewi visited Ende for this occasion to meet the patients and all  parties involved in the projects.

Not only cleft patients, we have also found a serious case of Craniofacial-Noma, which is need further follow up and treatment in Denpasar because this case can not be handle locally .

The Yayasan hopes to be involved in more of this kind of project in the future.

YSB Annual Report 2009 are now availabe to download

Download here

When she was at the Smile House she attended several clinics at Sanglah Hospital and was also examined by Professor David David from the Australian Cranio Facial Unit in Adelaide. Dr David diagnosed Titi-Hariani as suffering from a right tessier cleft and also a large opening on the right cheek. Dr David suggested an operation for Titi-Hariani when her malnutrition was under control.

In January 2008 Titi-Hariani again returned to the Yayasan Senyum Bali “Smile House” and attended several clinics at Sanglah Hospital, also during this time she had several teeth removed and had extensive teeth cleaning and dentistry work done.

At the end of January she was admitted to Darma Yadnya Hospital, a private hospital in Denpasar, to have facial surgery by one of Bali’s senior plastic surgeons. This operation was very successful and after a short recovery period, Titi-Hariani was discharged to the Smile House for a few days before returning to her village in Lombok.