Operation Smile 2012 Newsletter

Newsletter 2012 In this issue • Real stories of kids lives you’ve transformed • How you’ve created smiles • 10 Years of Smiles Ball

NEWS

How you have transformed lives How your support has delivered surgical and healthcare solutions to thousands of individuals In the last year, around the world, your donations ensured that Operation Smile provided 330,000 free healthcare examinations to patients. For many, this was the first time they had ever been seen by a doctor. Thanks to your support, our medical volunteers were able to perform over 18,000 free surgical procedures to children and young adults born with facial deformities as well as patients with trauma and burn injuries.

By empowering local medical experts with all the tools and training they need, 17,000 of these patients returned for post-operative evaluations – ensuring each patient treated had access to any critical aftercare, such as dentistry, speech therapy and counselling.

Building capacity and self-sufficiency with your donations Your donations have helped us launch 12 Comprehensive Care Centres around the world offering year-round medical services. Last year alone, we conducted more than 57,000 healthcare evaluations at our Centres and 19% of our surgical procedures.

In the nine months since we officially opened the Centre in Guwahati, Assam, the team has performed 1,856 free surgical procedures. The nursing division has transitioned successfully to being fully staffed by Indian nurses, providing specialised care to patients. In partnership with the Ministry of Health in Assam and Tata Trust, the Centre is moving to a truly self-sustaining centre of excellence.

How you are empowering local doctors Operation Smile has provided thousands of hours of hands-on practical clinical skills training in multi-disciplinary care for local doctors and healthcare professionals.

This allows in-country surgeons to provide cleft surgery all year-round to their communities.

With your help, we have also contributed to training programmes in Basic Life Support, Paediatric Advanced Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support, certifying more than 2,357 healthcare professionals from over 23 countries in the last year.

We now have plans to further expand our life support training to include

Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a course in neonatal resuscitation which has been trialled with community midwives in Morocco and for paediatric nurses in Namibia.

You are changing lives, every day Clefts are one of the most common birth defects in the world. They can be life threatening and emotionally traumatising. Approximately 12% of children born with clefts die under the age of 5. Yet, in nations where there is far greater access to healthcare, many people aren’t aware of how prevalent this deformity is.

being informed about the need to give every child the right to smile. Thank you for all you do.

Together, we can educate more people on the severity of clefting, as well as encouraging a greater understanding, compassion and acceptance for children born with deformities.

Thanks to you, everyday lives are being transformed and many more people are

How we are using your donations Operation Smile is the largest volunteer-based medical charity providing free cleft surgeries for children in developing countries.

In the last year, Operation Smile’s international medical volunteers performed 18,086 surgeries, creating new smiles and transforming the lives of children worldwide.

Operation Smile’s global outreach programmes have educated millions of patients, families and communities on the potential causes and care of children born with clefts.

Last year, our international medical volunteers provided over 300,000 hours of free care for our patients.

Financial year ending 30th June 2011.

12%

Contributions

Gifts-in-kind

Other

9%

79%

2%

12%

5%

81%

Total revenues £1,374,038

Charitable expenditure

Office administration

Property & property management

Other support costs

Total expenses £1,308,347

Research to reduce and prevent clefts with your support In the US, Operation Smile is conducting innovative research to better understand clefting and identify its causes, so we can work towards preventing and eradicating the incidence of cleft lip and cleft palate. Operation Smile has developed an International Family Study which is evaluating the links between the genetics of patients and their families as well as environmental factors that increase the incidence of clefts.

10th Anniversary In November, we marked the 10th Anniversary of Operation Smile in the UK – an incredible milestone for the organisation.

Thanks to you, we have had a profound impact on the lives of thousands of children and their families, raising millions of pounds over the last 10 years to fund and launch medical projects and Care Centres around the world and developing self-supporting foundations. The 10 Years of Smiles Ball brought together just some of our supporters in the UK for all-star celebration. Supporters including Elizabeth Hurley, Shane Warne, Andrew Strauss, Brendan Cole, Mishal Husain, Jeremy Snape and Duncan Bannatyne to name a few joined co-founders Bill and Kathy Magee and the UK Board of Trustees at The Hurlingham Club whereby we raised over £220,000 to continue support of our projects in India and Africa in the coming year.

Children you

have helped Bikash

Bikash wearing a hospital gown made by a child in the UK in response to our Blue Peter Send a Smile Appeal

This is Bikash and he is a very special boy. Bikash is 12 years old and he lives on a tea plantation in Assam.

He lost both his parents to an unknown fever a few years ago.

He now lives with his guardian, Surat, and Surat’s family.

When Bikash entered the operating theatre, he had a huge hole in his face.

One hour later, Bikash was admiring his healed lip and new smile in the recovery room. This is the most special moment in the life of a child with a cleft lip. He’s woken up to a completely different life!

Bikash arrived at the Operation Smile medical project in Guwahati hoping for surgery and a second chance in life.

Following a complete medical evaluation, he was ready for surgery.

And, a few hours after his surgery, Bikash was up and helping feed the small children in his hospital ward.

Remember, I said he is a very special boy!

Bikash seeing his new smile for the first time after surgery

Alison Smyth, Operation Smile Volunteer

Karen Nicol Karen Nicol was the apple of her father’s eye but when others looked at his little girl, they only saw the cleft she was born with.

Her parents, Janneth and Jose, were tormented by Karen Nicol’s facial deformity. They wanted so badly to give their daughter the surgery she needed.

But it was impossible on Jose’s income.

Imagine their relief when they learned Operation Smile would be providing free surgeries in Bogota, Colombia. They took Karen Nicol by bus to the medical project site where dozens of medical volunteers were waiting to help children like her.

And before long, Karen Nicol’s cleft was gone, replaced with a beautiful new smile.

Rohanna Mertens, Operation Smile Volunteer

Louise Edwards

Volunteer’s story

Speech Therapist & Operation Smile UK Medical Board Member I have been involved in the world of Cleft lip / palate since I was around 14 years old but have never been as moved as the time I have spent on projects with Operation Smile.

Where a team tells you that you do make a contribution, that in a moment lives can change. I relished every moment, including the most challenging of times to know that we were making a difference together. I believe in every challenge a lesson can be learnt. In the case of Operation Smile, every challenge is an opportunity to create a smile.

It is hard to describe the immense pride and privilege it is to take your job (a career), and be able to use such skills and experience in a country that has less opportunity and may have never been able to access the experience of a speech and language therapist. I am

proud to be able to share those skills and experience along with a group of like minded individuals.

To give hope and opportunity to babies, children and adults that otherwise are unable to access services that are readily available in the NHS. I cannot describe that incredible butterfly feeling when a patient sits before you and not only they but their family illuminate before you as for the first time ever they can say a sound, a word, a sentence that they have never been able to make understood before. That a world of opportunity is placed before them by helping them change the way they make sounds they otherwise would never be able to do. To give them the gift of communication. I know I love my job, and I am proud to be a Speech & Language Therapist Volunteer with Operation Smile.

Project report 1-8 December 2011, Accra, Ghana Operation Smile’s first international medical project in Ghana screened over 200 potential patients at the capital city’s Ridge Hospital, and selected 110 for free surgeries.

Operation Smile Programs Manager, Kia Guarino, said the overwhelming community involvement has been the key to getting this medical project off the ground. “We have support from over 30 partner organisations, and before the project even began we were able to credential five Ghanaian medical

professionals, not to mention enlisting the help of 40 local volunteers”.

Ghana is a vibrant and colorful West African nation of around 25 million people, where potentially tens of thousands of people with cleft lips and palates await treatment. So Operation Smile has much work to do.

UK volunteers are working alongside the Ghanaian medical volunteers and other international medical volunteers from Italy, USA, Sweden, Kenya and South Africa.

The medical project came to an end a week later with a farewell party for the team. Not only were 110 lives changed forever, but the team formed

11-year-old travels over 10 hours by bus in Ghana with hope of receiving surgery Among the 200 patients we screened in Accra, 11 year old Fuseina inspired us all with her courage and perseverance.

Hailing from a rural village in Ghana, Fuseina works on her family’s farm and was never afforded the opportunity to go to school because of her cleft lip.

Our volunteers learned during screening that she had travelled over 10 hours by bus to Accra with the hope of receiving cleft lip surgery. Although she only spoke a local language that very few understood, we were amazed at her outgoing and

friendly nature, even facing the unknown.

It was clear to the entire team, despite the language barrier, that she was determined to go home with a new smile.

We could only imagine the look on her parents’ faces when Fuseina arrived home with bright, new smile! Her perseverance, as well as the hospitality she received, remains a testament to our volunteers’ generous hearts and our supporters willingness to change children’s lives.

Rachel Roper, Program Coordinator, Operation Smile

“We have support from over 30 partner organisations... not to mention enlisting the help of 40 local volunteers” friendships and understandings of each other’s cultures that will thrive for years to come.

You have the power to change a child’s life There are so many ways, big and small, that you can help give a child a new smile, from making a regular donation to becoming a medical volunteer, from holding a cake sale to climbing Everest.

Why not join our Facebook page facebook.com/operationsmileuk, and start following us on Twitter @OpSmileUK. And when online, do visit our new Smile Shop at shop.operationsmile.org.uk where

you will find plenty of great ideas for gifts.

What better way to celebrate a special birthday or anniversary but with a smile?

Involve your school, group or colleagues in your fundraising effort? It’s a great way to have some fun while raising funds and awareness of the crucial work Operation Smile is doing around the world with children that need all our support so badly.

Have you thought how your company or business could partner with Operation Smile? Next time your company is looking for their Charity of the Year, why not nominate Operation Smile. Staff and customers alike love knowing that everyone is giving something back and making our world a better place, every day.

Contact events@operationsmile.org.uk

Contact corporate@operationsmile.org.uk

you

How have helped...

Sarah Brown is taking on the Gold Challenge

Harv jumped out of a plane at 15,000 ft

Jon climbed Kilimanjaro

Zurich International School held a fashion show

Mia cycled 20 miles for smiles on her 9th birthday

Mario designed the SOTM iPhone App

LexisNexis staff walked the length of the Thames

Hitan & Mahul traversed India in a rickshaw

Linklaters team trekked up Mount Toubkal

Ethicon employees baked a smile

Antonia did a 720ft bungeeeeeeeeee!

Christophe drove to Mongolia in an ambulance called ‘Dotty’

Oliver Waxed his legs – ouch!

Elizabeth Hurley danced the night away at our 10th Anniversary Ball

Robert & Ed kyakked the length of the Thames

David & Nader cycled from LA to New York

Agilisys staff held a raffle

Newlyweds Karen & Neil asked for donations instead of presents

Mark & Philipp ran 5 marathons across the desert

Mark raised smiles for his 40th birthday

Toni walked 80km in under 20 hours

10 year old Summer hiked 12 miles

Hannah, Louis & Alexandra sold their old toys at a car boot sale

400 people came to Carols by Candlelight in Mayfair

Rhona lost pounds for smiles

Q-med made us their charity of the year

Leaving smile s in your Will is also a wonderful way to make your support live on.

Saving a child from a life o f misery can cost as lit tle as ÂŁ150, w e are grateful for an y gift you ca n make, big or small.

For more info rmation abo ut legacies pleas e contact pippa.fawce tt@operation smile.org.uk or call on 0844 581 1110

The 2012km Challenge Can you walk, run, horse-ride, swim, row or canoe the equivalent of 2012 Kilometres before midnight on the 31st December 2012?

Do something amazing and be part of the historic 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games with your very own Gold Challenge.

The challenge is open to individuals, teams, companies, schools and children

operationsmile.org.uk/goldchallenge

email: events@operationsmile.org.uk