Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV) will host a fundraiser in Hanoi Saturday to provide money for free harelip and cleft palate surgeries in Vietnam.

The charity auction, titled Night of smiles, will be held at the Sofitel Plaza.

OSV expects some 200 guests from consulates, businesses and organizations in Vietnam to bid on the art created by renowned artists from around the country.

This is the 10th such charity auction OSV has held since 2002 and it is expected to collect enough money for 800 poor local children with lip and mouth deformities to undergo cosmetic surgeries.

A one week program last November celebrating the 25th anniversary of Operation Smile Incs establishment raised enough money to help 4,000 harelip children in 25 countries and territories undergo correctional surgery.

Some 3,000 Vietnamese children are born every year with facial deformities that can be corrected by OSV procedures.

The organization aims to raise enough money to help at least 2,500 of those children this year.

In June, OSV offered free harelip surgeries for Vietnamese children in Nha Trang as part of a project with the US Navys USNS Mercy, a medical ship equipped with modern facilities.

Reported by Nghia Pham