In one day, think about how many times you smile? A lot, right? It is how you greet others, it is how you show loved ones that you care, it is how you express your feelings. A smile can change the tone of interaction and put people at ease. So a smile is pretty powerful.
Now imagine for a moment that you couldn’t smile or that you were ashamed to show your smile. It is hard to wrap your mind around. However, for children around the world it is a sad reality. Many children in developing countries are born with a cleft lip or cleft palate are doomed to live a life of isolation. They have difficulty eating, breathing, and speaking. Most are not allowed to attend school or have a job. In Uganda children born with a cleft lip or palate or called Ajok which translates to “cursed by God”. These children live a life of pain and loneliness when a simple procedure could fix it. Imagine your own child having to suffer through years of agony and being ostracized because of how they look in addition to dealing with health and developmental problems because of it. What makes it worse is the fact that there is an obtainable solution, but without the small sum of money few have the means of correcting it.
This is where Smile Train comes in. Smile Train is an international Children’s Charity that is reaching out to children with clefts. This charity is creating a sustainable model to repair the clefts of children in developing countries. They are making it possible for these children to live a normal life, something they have not had the luxury of doing.
Smile Train provides the funding and training to local doctors in over 85 countries! They provide 100% free cleft repair surgeries in their communities. Then, those doctors go on to train other doctors creating a ripple effect of gracious goodwill that is changing millions of lives. There is currently a network of over 2,100 partner surgeons and with help that number will continue to grow.
The Smile Train surgery can take as quickly as 45 minutes and the transformation happens instantly! Imagine less than an hour and a child’s life could be better. With as little as $250 the surgery can be performed and the burden of looking different and struggling just to eat, breath, and speak could be over.
In just 15 years, Smile Train has helped over a million kids, but there are millions more that still need help. Visit their website today and learn the power of a smile. Find out how you can help change a child’s world by giving them the chance to smile.
See the lives changed with Smile Train.
Smile Train has a sustainable approach to a single, solvable problem: cleft lip and palate. Smile Train’s model provides training and funding to empower local doctors in developing countries provide 100%- free cleft repair surgery in their communities. Join us and change the world with the power of a smile.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Smile Train. The opinions and text are all mine.