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Bringing a smile to distraught children

Updated: 2012-05-21 07:49

By Shi Yingying in Shanghai (China Daily)

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Wang Li (second from the left) and her husband (first left) pose with chairman and co-founder of Smile Train Charles Wang (second from the right) on the Bund, Shanghai. Having established programs in 84 countries, the charity provides local doctors in China with training and equipment to perform operations to treat cleft lips and palates. On the right is Li Dungang. Gao Erqiang / China Daily

Cleft operations give youngsters a new chance to succeed in life

For Chinese children with cleft lips, their ship - or in this case, train - has finally arrived.

Smile Train, the world's largest charity repairing cleft lips and palates for children in developing countries, has pledged to banish the congenital condition from the mainland. Driving into China in 1999, the Smile Train has provided 250,000 free cleft surgeries to poor children in the country through its 397 partner hospitals.

The results, as expected, are dazzling. Just ask Wang Li, the first of the 750,000 people Smile Train has helped across the world.

Wang, 24, who got married earlier this year and has just confirmed she is pregnant, said her memory about Smile Train was as fresh as 13 years ago. "I was always avoiding crowds because of my cleft lip when I was little," said Wang, who was born with the congenital defect to a poor family from Suqian, Jiangsu province, with her five sisters. "I used to wrap my face in a scarf so that people couldn't see (my nose and lips) when I went out. Simple thing such as playing with other kids was only a dream for me."

Wang had never known a proper school before Smile Train's rescue. The first few attempts at attending were so fraught with ridicule and embarrassment that she withdrew and remained largely confined to her room.

"We didn't believe it - my father and I - when we first heard news of free surgery for a condition like mine from a rubbish collector in 1998. However, we still sent over an inquiry out of despair," she said.

Two days later, Wang received feedback from Smile Train's partner hospital in Nanjing, inviting her for the free surgery. When Wang returned home, not only did her neighbor not recognize her but also her mother. Wang's family was too poor to afford a home phone so nobody there knew the surgery schedule.

"You know who's the happiest when you fix a little baby?" asked Charles Wang, chairman and co-founder of Smile Train. "The mother! The mother will cry when she sees that baby. We have one in India. When the mother took a look at the baby (after the surgery), she gave it back, saying, 'It's not my baby'."

Zhu Yunlong, Wang's husband, couldn't thank Smile Train enough when he learned the reason for the faint scar on his wife's upper lip. "Thank you for putting the smile back on her face" was the first sentence Zhu said to Charles Wang when they met for the first time.

When Zhu Yunlong and Wang Li told Charles they had decided to use the word xiao ("smile" in English) as part of the name for their upcoming baby, he was relieved and said that's exactly the reason why he started Smile Train 13 years ago.

"They've been given an opportunity - the same one as if they weren't born with the cleft," said Charles Wang. "Many people asked me 'Why cleft?' because there're so many life-threatening diseases in the world and this is not that life-threatening. But the thing is when you don't have that opportunity, when all the kids make fun of you, the psychological damage is unbelievable."

"It's true that we could do lots of things as some other charities do. But let's do one thing and focus. Here you're going to fix a child's cleft and you know the cost," said Wang.

Having established programs in 84 countries, the charity provides local doctors in developing nations with training and equipment to perform cleft operations.

Smile Train increased the number of partner hospitals in China from 163 in 2007 to 397 in 2008, allowing the organization to change the lives of one baby born with a cleft in every 600 newborns in China. There were no such hospitals when Smile Train first came to China in 1999.

Li Dungang was given a 5,000-yuan scholarship from Smile Train in 1999. He lived on the sum for the entire two years he spent on campus. Wearing a brand-new suit and confident smile, the 29-year-old assistant judge has no trace of his cleft now.

"I was just promoted to be assistant judge and, hopefully, will become the principal judge (for a local court) within two years," said Li, who saved his first two years of salary to pay the money he borrowed from relatives to meet tuition fees during law school.

Apart from the financial aid and free operations Li received from Smile Train, free career consulting including job recommendations was extremely helpful as well, he said.

Most children with cleft defects shared Wang and Li's experiences. They were invariably born into poor families and remained hidden because of shame and isolation, said Charles Wang. That's also why the special task of becoming a role model fell on Li's shoulder.

"Look at Li. What a smart and handsome young man. Wouldn't it be nice if more people knew what he went through? Wouldn't it be nice for him to be able to guide teenagers with the same issue?" said Charles Wang, proposing the idea of organizing a Smile Train Family. The virtual community will become the online association for people aided by Smile Train to support each other. It is expected be launched this year.

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(China Daily 05/21/2012 page22)