Employees and partners of technology giant Samsung Electronics Ghana have engaged in a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative through their partnership with international medical group Operation Smile to fund free cleft surgeries in Ghana.
The Samsung team together with their key trade partners of which included Compu-Ghana, Electroland and Franko Trading, visited the Koforidua Regional Hospital where the Electronics provider funded cleft surgeries for close to 150 children. Samsung’s contribution to the initiative was $50,000.
Through its “Smile with Samsung” project, the company is donating $1 for every authorized smartphone bought towards free cleft surgeries from now until the end of January 2018.
The team were involved in organizing logistics for the operations, registering of patients, playing with the children and also congratulating patients who came out of surgery.
Statistics indicate that every three minutes somewhere in the world a child is born with a cleft. In Ghana, this equates to one out of every 750 births. Despite the fact that a cleft can be fixed with a simple surgery lasting just 45 minutes, one out of every 10 children with cleft dies before their first birthday.
Commenting on the initiative, Tracy Kyei, Marketing Manager at Samsung Ghana said: Our aim is to support a worthy cause in which our customers can partake – we want them to be proud to own a Samsung phone. We are grateful to all our customers for choosing Samsung and intend supporting this initiative to put smiles on the faces of children during this festive season”.
She urged all customers who purchase a Samsung device to register on the e-warranty to ensure Samsung recognizes the sale. “They will then receive a confirmation message, via SMS, that $1 has been donated to the “Smile with Samsung” project” Ms. Kyei added.