I’m sure everyone has seen an advertisement to help a child with a cleft lip. Cleft lip is a birth defect where the tissues of the upper jaw and nose do not join correctly during the gestational period. While it is not known to cause health problems, children with cleft lips find themselves rejected by society and leading hopeless lives as outcasts. Although children are born with cleft lips everywhere in the world, you rarely see unrepaired clefts in the United States and Europe as they are repaired soon after birth. In developing countries, they remain unrepaired since most families are too poor to afford a surgery. Cleft lip is thought to be caused by genetic or environmental factors.

The Smile Train is an organization that attempts to give hope to these children and provide them with free surgeries. It is a United States based non-profit organization that provides the tools necessary for local doctors in 76 countries to provide free surgery. One surgery costs only $250 and can be performed in less than an hour.

Recently, I watched the 2008 Oscar-winning documentary called Smile Pinki. Pinki is an adorable five year old girl born into poverty in India. Her cleft lip has inhibited her from leading a normal life until her family is introduced to Pankaj, a social worker. He travels through the country to find children with cleft lips and encourage them to come to a clinic where they will provide free surgery. The absolutely precious children in this film, who do not go to school out of embarrassment and fear, are finally given a new life with a simple surgery at the GS Memorial Hospital, one of the many Smile train centers in India.

Although it is a mere 40 minutes long, it shows so many compassionate, heartfelt moments like when Pinki sees herself for the first time after her surgery. Megan Mylen, the film’s director, does a fantastic job of capturing the pain they experience, their gratitude for the services, and their sense of hope after the surgery. It is an absolutely uplifting film that I strongly urge everyone to view.

For more information, the link for the official website is below.

http://smilepinki.com/

Hey everybody,

I am sorry that I haven’t e-mailed in a long time, but life here has been crazy and intense at times with plenty of emotional whirlwinds. Right now, I need your help. Other Peace Corps volunteers and I are trying to fund raise for a book project for Swaziland schools. We have selected 30 schools, one of which is my high school, to receive 30,000 books. That means 1,000 books per school! This would be a vast improvement of resources for these schools. The resources at most libraries at these schools are in short supply. My school is piloting a program to improve the students’ performance on accreditation exams that could allow them admittance to South Africa universities. This would considerably widen many students opportunities since there is presently only one university in Swaziland with a considerably low matriculation rate. Having the resources that this influx of books would create would be an immeasurable difference in the students’ education. To fully fund one new library through this project would only cost about $335. The total cost of all 30 schools is a little more than $10,000. Please help by donating whatever you can to the U.S. Peace Corps Partnership fund for this project. Any donation will be tax-deductible. Here is the link by which you can help:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=645-077

Any donation would be highly appreciated. Please send this to others you know who would be interested in donating as well. Any help will be one more step to providing brighter futures for Swazi children.

Once again, thanks for your support.

Thanks,

Elizabeth (Lisa) Thoyakulathu

Looking for a way to get involved? Check out Developments in Literacy (DIL), a non-profit organization dedicated to providing quality education to disadvantaged children, especially girls, by establishing and operating schools in the underdeveloped regions of Pakistan, with a strong focus on gender equality and community participation.

There are seven (7) chapters that cover the United States and abroad. An eighth chapter was created to promote participation from emerging leaders in the community called YOUR DIL.

Every year DIL Houston (like other chapters) hosts a large fundraising event. This year’s fundraiser held in April freatured keynote speaker Dr. Adil Najam, who shares the Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for his work on “An Inconvenient Truth.” Through generous donations and participation in a silent auction, the organization was able to raise $183,000, shattering their goal of $175,000. Proceeds will go directly to fund schools and send new students to schools to give them opportunities that they never realized.

Check out  http://www.dil.org/index.html to learn more!

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