Operation SmileWinter 2010/11

Inside this issue...Thank youCampaignUpdate from the field

FundraisersEventsHow you can help

news

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THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Dear Friends,As we look back over the past year, Operation Smile’s achievements and growth seem incredible. Thanks to the generosity of individuals like you, we have provided surgery for more than 16,000 children and young adults in the last 12 months and reached an incredible milestone of our 150,000th surgery. So many precious lives changed forever as a result of your kindness. It is wonderful to think of all the children who will now go to school, laugh with friends, grow to be healthy - and most importantly, smile. The ripple effect of such a transformation impacts not only the child, but their parents, siblings and the wider community, creating greater awareness of a tangible solution for such a visual birth defect.

The increase in patient numbers was made possible by the support of our extremely talented and selfless medical volunteers who continue to travel the world teaching local experts to perform these surgical process year-round. Over 60% of our medical projects are now run by local volunteers, reinforcing our commitment to creating a self-sustaining model. The development of the Comprehensive Care Centres in India has meant many hundreds more patients were able to be treated in the last year and our Centre in Morocco is providing over 1800 free dental procedures each month.

2011 promises to be an even greater year for Operation Smile and here in the UK we will be celebrating our 10th Anniversary. None of these milestones would be possible without your support, tireless energy and enthusiasm to make a difference to so many lives. The children you have helped may never know your name but they will never forget your kindness.

Warm regards

Alexandra TalbotChief Executive

campaign

Blue Peter– Send A Smile Appeal

Do you remember the first time you took part in a Blue Peter Appeal? Spanning over 50 years, it is an institution that many of us will never forget and last year, Operation Smile was chosen as Blue Peter’s charity of the year. The Appeal invited children to make hospital gowns out of T-shirts for our patients receiving free cleft lip and cleft palate surgery. Every T-shirt that was received would save Operation Smile £3, meaning we could spend the funds saved on further surgeries.

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Blue Peter were really excited with the Appeal idea and sent presenter Helen Skelton out to a medical project in Guwahati, Assam, India, where over 30,000 children are thought to have untreated facial deformities. Helen witnessed firsthand more than 600 patients arriving at the hospital during the first 2 days, all hoping for life changing surgery. That week, our medical volunteers were able to provide 220 patients with surgery but Helen was acutely aware that nearly 400 others had to be turned away and so set off on her own mission, to tell their story and ask primary schools students to see what they could do to help.

Operation Smile developed an education pack that linked into the curriculum and was sent to over 25,000 schools across the UK and Blue Peter set the public a target of making 20,000 gowns. The response was staggering and we received gowns from hundreds of our supporters, schools, Brownies, Scouts and Cub groups. Celebrities including Jasper Conran, Peter Andre, Alesha Dixon, Matt Dawson, JLS & The Saturdays also all made gowns. In just 12 weeks we smashed our target, receiving over 100,000 gowns! The Appeal spread as far as France, Spain, the US and even Turkey with an array of beautifully crafted and decorated T-shirts.

Andy, Helen and Joel returned to Guwahati in December to give the first of the gowns to the children coming in for surgery. The excitement on the wards was unbelievable, with the children sifting through boxes of T-shirts looking for their favourite colours and designs! They really helped to put the children and parents at ease and many of the kids took their T-shirts home.

Operation Smile saved over £300,000 and as a result were able to provide an additional 2,000 children with life changing surgery. The gowns were a great hit and are still being distributed across the world for patients to use in every country we work in.

None of this could have been possible without the support of everyone involved. We received so many wonderful stories from schools and individuals who took part, who were moved to help. Our special thanks also to Currys, Currys Digital and PC World, APC Couriers, Access Self-Storage and British Airways who generously provided collection points across the UK and shipped the gowns to our patients, free of charge. We also wanted to thank the team and presenters at Blue Peter who told our story. If you would like to find out more, visit www.operationsmile.org.uk/bluepeter to see some of the video case studies.

update from the field

Clefts are the 3rd most common birth defect globally and it is estimated that over 200,000 babies are born every year with this deformity. Here in the UK, a child’s cleft is usually repaired in the first year of its life but in the developing world, many parents simply aren’t aware help is available or can’t afford treatment.

In 2010, Operation Smile partnered with the Ministries of Health in 21 new locations, allowing us to reach more children in need of free reconstructive surgery. Our inaugural projects included Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Kigali, Rwanda; Jakarta, Indonesia and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, giving a further 1,969 children new smiles. In total, Operation Smile hosted 152 medical projects in 33 countries in the last fiscal year and changed the lives of 16,113 children and young adults.

Volunteers Operation Smile wouldn’t exist without our dedicated volunteers. Today, more than 5,000 medical volunteers from over 60 countries work with Operation Smile. Our medical teams are made up of highly-skilled plastic surgeons, anaesthetists, paediatricians, nurses, dentists, speech therapists, child life therapists and biomedical technicians. In addition, thousands of community volunteers work tirelessly to raise funds, coordinate medical projects, donate supplies, provide transportation and support educational programmes for Operation Smile. Each and every individual is critical to our work.

Marco Nebria, ICU Nurse, London

Marco has been helping children with clefts smile again with Operation Smile since 1995. He started during his third year in Brokenshire College of Nursing as a student nurse volunteer during the first Operation Smile project in Davao City, Philippines. After graduation, Marco moved to Manila and joined the national team, then the international team when he emigrated to the UK in 1999. “There’s this feeling of excitement every time I go on a project”, he said. “I can’t explain it but I think I’m kind of addicted to doing projects.”

Marco volunteers as a pre-and-post op nurse for Operation Smile. He recalled meeting an 8-year old child from Davao in 2001. “He was bullied in school

Eugenie’s Story

Born with a severe cleft lip, Eugenie suffered unimaginable torment throughout her young life in Rwanda. When her parents died, Eugenie’s relatives refused to

allow her to live with them. She survived by wandering the streets, begging. People would cruelly shout at her as she approached.

Finally, a good Samaritan named Yvette saw her on the streets and decided to raise Eugenie as her own child. Stunted and malnourished as a result of extreme poverty and her cleft lip, Eugenie looked like an 11-year-old girl at age 14. When Yvette heard that Operation Smile was coming to Kigali on their first-ever medical project in Rwanda and that doctors would perform surgeries for free, she knew it was Eugenie’s

only chance to have her cleft lip repaired. They travelled by foot and bus for 10 hours to reach Kigali. However, when the doctors pre-screened Eugenie, she had a high fever because of a cold she had caught during the long and arduous trip. The doctors treated her and monitored her throughout the week to determine if she would be well enough to undergo the life-changing surgery she so desperately needed. Eugenie and Yvette waited anxiously to see if she would be selected. On the last day, Eugenie’s dreams were finally realised. Her condition had improved and she was one of the 248 patients selected to receive

surgery to repair her cleft.

Upon seeing Eugenie for the first time after surgery, Yvette fell to her knees and cried with tears of happiness. For the first time, she could imagine a real future for Eugenie. Today, Eugenie has a new smile and a new life. As she plays with her friends, laughter fills the air. Eugenie finally knows what it is like to be a child.

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Countries we work in

What happens during an Operation Smile medical project?

Step by step

On a typical Operation Smile international medical project, 300-500 children receive full medical evaluations and 100-150 are surgically treated. For each patient, Operation Smile offers post-operative care at 1 month, 6 months and 1 year to evaluate their health, the progress of their surgical treatment, speech and if necessary, deliver further medical care.

Ammulu was born with a cleft lip and palate that made eating and drinking difficult. Her parents feared for her future but they could not afford the surgery to help her. Then, Operation Smile came to Vijayawada, India just 45 miles from their village. This is what happened next;

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because of his deformity. His classmates called him names.” After surgery, the boy looked at himself in the mirror for hours and was amazed by what he saw. “Now, they can’t call me names anymore,” the boy said and then cried. Marco had this great feeling seeing this boy overcome his fears and alienation from his peers. “He was a brave kid but I saw in his eyes how the deformity really affected him. It was definitely one of the most touching moments I’ve ever encountered!”

Since 2000, Marco has been going to Davao, his hometown, to do projects year after year. He has also attended projects in Cambodia, Jordan, Venezuela and Vietnam. “My driving force in

continuing my work for this great organisation is the thought that I have somehow contributed to changing the lives of children. As long as there are kids who need my help, as long as I am able, I’ll always be an Operation Smile volunteer”.

If you are a nurse like Marco, an anaesthetist, a surgeon, plastic surgeon, speech therapist, bio-med technician or dentist and are interested in volunteering, please email: volunteers@operationsmile.org.uk

Ten Comprehensive Care Centres

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Operation Smile’s sustainability initiatives include offering year-round surgical care and concentrated follow-up care in-country. Ten Comprehensive Care Centres in seven countries offer patient care beyond surgery, including post-operative care, counselling, speech therapy, dentistry, orthodontics, nutrition, as well as ongoing training and education.

At these Centres, over 3,800 patients received reconstructive surgery for facial deformities and more than 5,400 patients were screened for surgery last year. Current locations for Operation Smile’s Comprehensive Care Centres include China, India, Vietnam, Colombia, Morocco, Jordan and Honduras.

Each star on the map represents an Operation Smile Care Centre.

Medical ScreeningAmmulu received a complete medical checkup to determine if she could undergo surgery.

Surgery SelectionShe was amongst 89 children selected for surgery on the day.

Pre-Op CareA child-life specialist prepares Ammulu for what will happen in surgery using games and role-play.

Safe SurgeryA cleft surgery can take as little as 45 minutes, and each patient benefits from state-of-the-art equipment, procedures and highly trained medical volunteers.

Post-Op CareA surgical team visits Ammulu’s parents to provide instructions for follow-up treatment.

Six Month Follow-UpAmmulu’s beautiful smile is evaluated to make sure her lip is healing properly.

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fundraisers

events

Youngest Brit to climb Kilimanjaro raises 173 SmilesBraving Africa’s highest mountain, 13-year-old George Forbes-Nixon reached Mount Kilimanjaro’s 19,298 feet (5,895m) summit at 6.50am on Saturday 17th July 2010 with his father David. They began their final ascent at midnight from Barafu camp (4,600m) and walked non-stop for 17 hours (7 hours up to Uhuru Peak and then 10 hours down to the bottom of the mountain at 1,800m).

George by no means took the easy option, despite his young age. He trekked along the less-trodden Machame route which passes through thick forest and moorland on the ascent to the highest point, Uhuru Peak. At one point, young George fainted through lack of oxygen but expert medical help was at hand and before long he was leading the way up the mountain!

George and David have raised just under £26,000, which will change the lives of 173 children who suffer from cleft lips and cleft palates. As a Trustee of Operation Smile UK and Chairman & CEO of Alcentra Investment Group, David has witnessed firsthand Operation Smile’s work. George and David are donating 100% of the proceeds to pay for an Operation Smile Medical Project in Kenya this year.

7-year-old Eidann chops her hair to give children new smilesExperts say the value of philanthropy and volunteerism should be instilled at a young age – 7-year-old Eidann Coles can be considered a role model for her peers. In October Eidann cut off her hair and donated it so that a child with cancer could have a wig made.

Eidann knows what it is to be faced with obstacles as a small child. She was born with a cleft lip and incomplete palate and had her first surgery to repair her cleft at 16 weeks. Six months ago, she underwent another surgery to repair her lip and will have to undergo even more surgery in the future. In addition to her philanthropic efforts for children with cancer, Eidann was determined to help children like her who were born with clefts but whose parents can’t afford to give them the surgery they so desperately need. Through a series of fundraising events, Eidann has raised enough donations to support operations for 7 children – a remarkable achievement for someone so young!

LexisNexis ENDURE THE CHALLENGE!23 members of Staff from LexisNexis decided to set themselves the challenge to walk the entire length of the Thames, from its source in the Cotswolds all the way down to the Thames Barrier, just east of London. This epic walk is 184 miles and was completed by staff over 3 weekends and they raised £4,339.10. Thank you all very much!

Celebrity Cricket Day and Safari SupperThe 5th Annual Operation Smile Cricket Day at the Bank of England Sports Ground saw the Betfair Knight Riders, Agilisys Chargers and Blenheim Chalcot Royals prepare to take on the Goldsmith SuperKings, Jansen Daredevils and TDX Tigers, alongside professionals Graeme Hick, Liam Botham, Michael Lumb, Simon Hughes, Sohail Tanvir and Jeremy Snape.

The competition was fierce and the only time play stopped was when Australian Bowling legend Shane Warne gave a bowling masterclass to the teams. As the afternoon drew to a close, the Betfair Knight Riders were just beaten to the cup by the Jansen Daredevils, who cunningly bowled them out!

As the sun set in time for the Safari Supper, the African drums began to beat, welcoming guests to dinner. The evening was packed full of your favourite reality TV programmes with guests bidding for friends to undertake a series of bush tucker trials! X-Factor’s Danyl Johnson made a surprise guest appearance after dinner, performing some of his fantastic songs which soon filled the dance floor. The evening continued to the early hours and thanks to the incredible generosity of all the celebrities and our supporters, we raised over £120,000, which will change the lives of 826 children.

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MOTOTAXI MADNESS!Andy and Keith from Northern Ireland set out on the first ever Mototaxi Junket in November, on an adventure like no other! Their story covers 1,170 km of some of the toughest terrain in what can only be described as a motorbike with a sofa strapped to the back of it...

Calling themselves team ‘Mayan’s a Pint of Harp’, the chaps headed off on their Mototaxi from Huancayo in Peru in the rough direction of Paraguay. They, along with 62 other teams who were all raising money for Operation Smile, had to find their way across the Andes with 2,500ft drops at some points, on narrow dirt roads.

The trip they endured wasn’t without its challenges and Andy’s adventure took a turn for the worse; “I skidded and hit a cliff wall, flew over the handle bars, and smashed my collar bone. I originally thought it was just bruised, until the swelling went down and my collar was a funny shape. I refused to go to hospital as I thought they’d tell me that driving a Mototaxi wasn’t the best idea with a broken collar bone and I was determined to finish the race!”

The guys continued through Peru into the stunning flattened out plains of the Altiplano at over 14,000ft before winding down past Lake Titicaca into Bolivia. Eventually and not too soon, Andy and Keith managed to reach the Paraguayan capital, La Paz.

The Mototaxi event has raised over £85,500 for projects in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay. We are enormously grateful to all the teams who took part on this memorable adventure. We are delighted to report that Andy has made a full recovery!

St Christopher School Bake a SmileThe pupils of St Christopher School in Letchworth, Hertfordshire decided to Bake a Smile when they ran their annual ‘Charity Coffee Morning’ in November and raised over £1,000 for Operation Smile.

The school council chose to support Operation Smile following a suggestion by a council member. Pupils designed and ran their own stalls, baking and decorating all the cakes and goodies on offer to raise as much money as possible in a few short hours. They also had ‘busking’ in the school hall to entertain all their guests, while they enjoyed the delicious food on offer. Children and teachers all agreed that it is a really enjoyable way to raise money for charity.

So remember, if you want to take part, all you have to do is mix it, make it, bake it, sell it! Whether it’s elevenses, afternoon tea or just because it’s Wednesday a yummy cake, delicious brownie or scrummy biscuit is always a welcome treat. We are, after all, a nation of great bakers!

To take part and download our Bake a Smile Fundraising pack and delicious celebrity recipes visit www.operationsmile.org.uk/bakeasmile

If you would like to take part in any of our 2011 events, or if you have an idea for your own fundraising event or challenge, please contact our events team on 0844 581 1110 or email events@operationsmile.org.uk

The pews were packed, the candles flickered and the mulled wine flowed at the beautiful Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair at our second Carols by Candlelight Service in December. As the first notes of “O

Come all Ye Faithfull” resounded from the organ, Christmas spirits rose and guests where entertained by the amazing IDMC Gospel choir.

Very many thanks to the wonderful celebrity guest readers who delighted us with an array of readings; Alan Titchmarsh, Annette Crosbie, Anthony Andrews, Emma Crosby, Niamh Cusack and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.

Thank you to the tireless Carols Committee, sponsors and all the supporters who joined us on this magical evening. Don’t forget to hold the date for next year : Wednesday 7th December 2011.

Carols by Candlelight

coming up in 2011...

April 2011 Virgin London MarathonMay 2011 Bake a Smile WeekJuly 2011 British 10K London RunJuly 2011 6th Annual Celebrity Cricket DaySeptember 2011 Operation Smile Quiz NightNovember 2011 10 Years of Smiles – Anniversary BallNovember 2011- 2012 Gold Challenge – Olympics SportsDecember 2011 Carols by Candlelight,

Changing Lives One Smile at a Time

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Please return to: Operation Smile UK, 15 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW

Or call us on 0844 581 1110 or visitwww.operationsmile.org.uk/donate

Please help us in any way you can to reach more vulnerable children with facial deformities

1 in 10 babies born with a cleft will die before their first birthday. A cleft is more than just a physical deformity and affects a child’s ability to eat, speak and breathe.

Yet Operation Smile can provide a solution. In just 45 minutes and for as little as £150 we can change a child’s life, forever.

Thanh is just one of the children who are born every 3 minutes somewhere in the world with a cleft. He is also one of the 150,000 patients we have been able to treat thanks to your generosity. There are still however many more children who need our help.

Thanh’s story “Sut” means split lip and is a terrible name for a child. But for the first nine years of his life, that’s what Thanh was called by everyone in his village. Every day, the cleft lip he was born with caused him pain and humiliation. On his first day of school, the other children taunted him so mercilessly because of his disfigured mouth that he never went back. It seemed his whole life would be ruined by what his parents believed was a curse.

Then one day, his parents heard about an Operation Smile medical project that was to take place in Vung Tau, Vietnam and decided to bring him to see our medical volunteers. Thanh was chosen for surgery and he received the new smile he had always hoped for. When he went home to his village, he made new friends and reclaimed his birth name, Thanh, meaning “Blue Sky.” Eight months after his surgery, Thanh returned to have his follow up assessment and was asked if he had a best friend. He shyly turned his head and smiled at an adorable little nine-year-old girl. Now, the sky’s the limit for Thanh. He has returned to school and his future is filled with sunshine.

how can you help