Health

NEIP & Smile Train help 2 more Indian children with cleft palates

by mtnfund | April 2, 2009 at 08:28 pm

222 views | 30 Recommendations | 2 comments

One of our projects, The North East India Project, has recently partnered with Smile Train, a non-profit helping children with cleft palates.

According to the Smile Train:

Every year 35,000 children in India are born with clefts – a gap in the upper lip and/or palate. Though completely treatable, less than half get the treatment they desperately need. A cleft can be completely corrected with a simple surgical procedure that could take as little as 45 minutes and cost as little as Rs. 8,000.

NEIP has recently sent two children in India, Alum and Tsuti, to a Smile Train doctor who has performed the first part of their cleft palate surgery; closing up the palate. Their second and final surgery, fixing their upper lip, will most likely be in 4-6 weeks, and will provide them with a new smile.

The Smile Train doctor is located in Shillong, Meghalaya, which is over 300 miles from the children's village. Word is beginning to spread around the state of Nagaland, and we anticipate getting more requests to help from other areas very soon.

NEIP had the goal of raising $1,000.00 by the end of March to help pay for the travel expenses and surgeries for two children. We were working to find 250 supporters who would donate $4.00 each.

We met and exceeded that goal, raising $1,081!

Thank you from The Mountain Fund and The North East India Project to all of those who helped out, and we look forward to posting more updates on the NEIP Smile Project soon.

Please check out any of the links above for more information on these and other TMF projects.

Smile Train recently won an Oscar for their documentary, Smile Pinki.

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Paschen

at 20:51 on April 2nd, 2009

Very touching and I wish there was no need for this post. Yet there is and more has to be done.

adaford (not verified)

at 04:24 on April 3rd, 2009

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