South Asia Smile Train 2019
Southwest Asia
Smile Train_William J. Horan
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to report on Smile Train’s deployment of the $7,500 contribution received July 2019. This contribution represents the second installment on a grant of $15,000 approved in 2018.
Benefits of Using Contribution
We utilized the contribution to support two critical elements of Smile Train’s global cleft program. As has been noted in prior applications and reports, the sponsorship of 100% free cleft surgery is the linchpin of our work. In this our 20 th anniversary year, I am pleased to report that Smile Train has sponsored more than 1.5 million free cleft lip and palate surgeries for patients, overwhelmingly young children, in developing countries. The families of these children are too poor to afford the relatively uncomplicated and relatively inexpensive cleft repair surgery that has been routinely provided in the industrialized world for decades.
We allocated $5,000 of this contribution to our partner Smile Care in Uganda, which provided 20 surgeries for children in need . Smile Care has been a Smile Train partner since 2012 and has done more than 2,600 surgeries since 2012. Based on our patient demographic profile in Uganda, 12 boys and 8 girls would have received surgery through your funding, with surgery generally provided at about 6 months of age.
The $2,500 balance of the contribution was allocated to support nutritional supports through our partner TESS sin limites in Guatemala, which has been a Smile Train partner since 2013. Since that time, Tess sin limites has provided over 550 surgeries, as well as numerous post-surgery speech therapy treatments and pre-surgery nutritional interventions for children who have had their surgery postponed because they are too malnourished to undergo surgery. The contribution supported nutritional evaluations and the provision of milk and formula to the mothers for their children. The average cost for each patient was $50, so SO patients benefited from the contribution. Based on our patient demographic profile in Guatemala, 32 boys and 18 girls would have received treatment through your funding, with an average age of just under 2 years.
We are most grateful for the continued support of the Global Children Foundation. Please extend our thanks and best wishes to your members for their collective generosity, which helps so many wonderful charities that are doing important and meaningful work all over the world.
