100 Smiles in 100th Mission

Dear Smile Givers,

With pandemic hitting us hard, we were made to halt our operations. We did complete 800+ surgeries in the past year. 

Dear Smile Givers, 

Covid 19 has been challenging for all of us! We hope to overcome this soon with support from everyone!

This pandemic has affected cleft children as they are more susceptible to viruses, malnourished, and at higher risk than the average children.  We need your support more than ever to gift 100 more smiles on our next mission!

We request all to please help us to reach out to maximum people. 

 UPDATE on 100th Mission:

Thank you for donating generously for this campaign!

This campaign helped us to fund the gap to provide surgeries to 100 Kids.

You will be glad to hear that we did not 100 but 103 Surgeries in the Mission in 5 Days. The mission was organized at Kolkata, India from March 15 – 20, 2019.

Over 50 volunteers from India and across the globe participated in the mission. There were student volunteers from five universities got a first-hand experience working for these kids.

This mission changed the life of many children and we are happy to share we treated patients ranging from 6 months old to 68 years old. 67% of the kids that we operated in the mission were under the age of 5.

In this mission, we saw volunteers from state universities, international medical professional and Indian railway scout group. We were able to provide 103 surgeries and done two post-operative care camps for these cleft patients. We are happy to share that more than 90% of patients retention was seen in these camps. 

Thanks

Priyankit

Sobhan’s birth brought immense joy to his parents but when they saw his face they felt their hearts drop. His beautiful face had been marred by a cleft lip. The new parents were worried how their family would react.

We treated Sobhan on our Mission and our Smile volunteers brought back smile on his face. Sushila now carries her child Sobhan on her shoulder with a smile that is identical to her sone. 

This surgery made a huge impact on his family's life. He was considered a curse on the family but with his smile restored his parents and family member in the village have now understood the science and pledged to not discriminated anybody with cleft deformities. 

Thanks

Eman’s birth brought immense joy to his parents but when they saw his face they felt their hearts drop. His beautiful face had been marred by a cleft lip. The new parents were worried how their family would react.

Eman’s extended family, however, were surprisingly welcoming. His grandmother consoled his parents saying that God does not make any one perfect; He always sends us with some flaws so that we remain humble. Eman’s parents were relieved upon hearing this. The community at large also welcomed the child, and many of them even offered home-remedy tips to his mother to fix his lips. She tried several of them, before she realised that nothing was going to fix her child’s face unless God Himself wished it. Even though everyone welcomed the child, she feared for his acceptance once he grew up and started attending school and prayed daily for a miracle.

Her prayers were answered   when she found out about the free surgery and cleft care offered by Mission Smile. She travelled more than 100kms to bring her child to us. Upon arrival Eman was examined and selected for surgery. Post surgery, his mother was very happy with her baby’s transformation and she thanked God for sending Mission Smile to work this miracle in their life.

11-months-old Bornali belongs to a poor family of marginal businessmen from Assam. The birth of the little one was sadly, not a joyous occasion for the family. When the family discovered that the child was born with a cleft lip and palate, they were shocked and cursed the gods that had given them a malformed child.

Often the neighbours and her family murmured among themselves about little Bornali’s deformity; but no one had outright disowned the child. However, feeding the child was a constant struggle for the  mother. The child cannot eat properly and consequently suffers from malnutrition. Her cleft palate also causes trouble during breathing, making the life of the little one extremely difficult.

Bornali's parents heard about Mission Smile from their neighbour. At first they could not believe that such a surgery was possible; then there was another stroke of luck which seemed to shine down upon them – it was free of cost! They were instantly overjoyed, though a little sceptical about their little Bornali smiling again.

This year Bornali smiled a cleft-free smile for the first time. Her palate still needs to be operated upon and she will be scheduled for surgery as soon as her lip has healed.