One thing we all take for granted is the ability to smile, but not everyone is that fortunate. Every three minutes, all across this globe, a child is born with cleft lip and/or cleft palate. The odds of dying before a child reaches the age of one is greatly increased if they have a cleft. Operation Smile is a wonderful international children’s medical charity that performs safe and effective cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries for families in low to middle income countries. Their services do not end there as Operation Smile continues to deliver postoperative therapy; quite literally saving these children one smile at a time.
Operation Smile has provided over 220,000 free surgical procedures to children and young adults since 1982. They work with dedicated volunteers training the local medical professionals so that they can continue to offer help for those who need it most. The training does not end there. Operation Smile works to reinforce the local healthcare systems, bringing much needed hope to these communities.
You may be wondering what clef lip and palate are and why they occur. Like many infant illness the exact cause is not known, but many doctors believe it is a combination of genetics and other factors that influence a woman while she is pregnant. For example poverty, malnutrition, drug use and lack of folic acid intake (which is found in prenatal vitamins). A cleft is an opening in the lip, roof of the mouth or the soft tissue in the back of the mouth. A cleft lip may be accompanied by an opening in the bones of the upper jaw and/or the upper gum. A cleft palate happens when the two sides of a palate do not join together, resulting in an opening in the roof of the mouth. A cleft lip and palate can occur on one side or both sides. A child can suffer from a cleft lip, a cleft palate or both.
After having surgery, the name calling stopped for this brave little girl..
You can just imagine how many of these children are treated, often being rejected by society and neglected by their families. A child with a cleft lip and/or palate who actually survives, if left untreated, can have trouble breathing, talking, eating and even hearing. Add in the hardship of a family not being able to afford the surgery needed to repair the cleft and these children are left with barely a fighting chance at a normal life.
https://youtu.be/nbsZSvBwZwU
Operation Smile works tirelessly to bring their resources, whether it is in the form of actual medical professionals performing surgeries or their research findings, to people who need it most. But they can not do it alone and that is where the support from private citizens and large brands alike comes into play. One such company is CampusBookRentals.com. I have shared with you before how college students, and their long suffering parents, can save money just by renting your textbooks from CampusBookRentals.com instead of spending hundreds to buy a book, but did you know that with each textbook they rent CampusBookRentals.com donates directly to Operation Smile? They are helping to not only save students money, but save the smiles of disadvantaged children and young adults world wide.
Now that is something to smile about…:-)
FT&PD
Suz
Wow, this sounds like a great charity! And so cool that they have other companies partnering with them to help them do their work. It’s so sad that kids are born with problems like these, and even sadder that many don’t have access to the care and treatment they need. Thankfully it is treatable! Thanks for sharing about it.
Thanks for checking it out Bonnie!
A great partnership! I remember spending so much money on books in university, and when you sold them at the end of the course they gave you so little for them. Renting is a great idea.
Especially when kids leave college with such huge bills anyway. Every little bit helps!
Wow, what a great post! I love to hear positive stories like this. I’ll make sure my daughter looks into CampusBookRentals for her textbooks. Thanks for sharing!
It is a win win when you rent with them Dani 🙂
I absolutely love Operation Smile and what they do for lives. So many kids are treated so poorly for this disfiguration in developing countries , some being abandoned! This organization provides an amazing service.
I totally agree Randa. It is an amazing charity!
As a former Operating Room Nurse I am a little familiar with Operation Smile. One of our Plastic Surgeons used to travel and work with them once or twice every year. It is a relatively small operation to fix a cleft lip and/or and the result is HUGE for the child!
Monica, I know a couple of people who had this as a child and you are so right. The difference it can make is life saving..
My little grand daughter is going to be born this coming June, and they already know that she is going to be born with a cleft lip. It’s wonderful to see organizations like this one that help children with this.
Aww bless her heart <3 Congrats on her impending arrival Anne and God bless with her treatments. <3
I will check this out thanks
It is such a worthwhile charity Laurie..the kids smiles are inspiring!
Thanks for posting about Operation Smile. They do a wonderful service and more people need to know about them and support.