Operation Cleft
One of the few benefits of lockdown is that the club can now call on Rotary speakers from all over the world to join our "Zoom" club meetings. So it was on Friday when Bruce McEwen joined us from Victoria to talk about the SMILES project.
WARNING - distressing image of cleft palette affected child.
Bruce, with the support of many Australian Rotary clubs has been changing the lives of Bangladeshi children through the SMILES project which arranges and pays for life changing surgery. It is entirely supported through voluntary donations and treats 1,200 children every year.
This is about one quarter of the affected children. Because the surgery is regarded as cosmetic, it is not supported by the government. We also found out that some Rotary Clubs in the USA are following Australia's example and starting up similar projects to help change the lives of these unfortunate kids.
Bruce told stories of how many of the children die through associated complications, and those who do survive basically become outcasts in their society through the ignorance and superstition of the Bangladeshi villages.
So well done Bruce and team, and while the images are very distressing its great to know that Rotary is making a difference and that there are fantastic Rotarians out there who provide that much needed support.
What I didn't know, and its another thing to be grateful for, is that the birth rate of cleft pallets problems is around one child in 700...and that is true around the world including Australia..but we are indeed fortunate every Australian child born with this defect is attended to early on in life.