"Snow Trophy" for Smile Train

11 March 2010 - Also this year Eni has decided to donate to the Smile Train Italia charity the sum of money raised through the enrolment fees for the 2010 employees' "Snow Trophy", held at Modena from the 6 to 13 February, to finance the third mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The funds gathered will help give hope – and a smile - to children affected by cleft lip and palate, a facial malformation that implies not only nutritional problems and difficulties in speaking, but also serious social disadvantages.

The previous mission, supported by the contributions of the 2009 "Snow Trophy", made it possible for 93 children to undergo operations. However, there are many more still in need of aid. Hence the need for a new surgical mission, scheduled for next April.

The mission's goals include:

• founding a medical centre of excellence for the treatment of facial malformations at the University Hospital in Kinshasha
• continuing the training activities for local medical staff, to ensure adequate training in the treatment of this pathology
• developing of the "Folic Acid is Life" project, aimed at distributing folic acid to Congolese women, in order to reduce the incidence of cleft lip and palate.

Eni Foundation too is cooperating with Smile Train Italia in Indonesia to set up a state-of-the-art surgical centre for the treatment of cleft lip and palate at the Tarakan Hospital, in the Eastern Kalimantan region.