Smile Train Stories

Quezon City, Philippines — Yesterday, Smile Train announced our 750,000th free cleft surgery since our founding in 1999. Jhoanna Galut was chosen to represent this amazing “smilestone.” This is her story.

As Jhoanna Galut began to approach her 6th birthday, she had little to celebrate. The 4th of 6 children born to a poor family living off $2 a day, Jhoanna suffered from a unilateral cleft lip as well as asthma. Her asthma turned out to be almost as much of a curse as her cleft lip.

Jhoanna’ asthma and very thin frame caused her to fail to pass the medical examination during a free cleft surgery camp organized by an army unit. The cancellation of her surgery at the camp, sent her family into despair. Things only got worse when she got older and local kids began to make fun of her cleft. Perhaps saddest of all, it wasn’t just school kids who made fun of Jhoanna — her mother frequently got into fights with her neighbors over Jhoanna’s cleft.

One day, Jhoanna’s mother brought her youngest child to the hospital for a check up and found literature about Smile Train’s free cleft surgery program at Philippine Band of Mercy. Her hope returned, and when they arrived home, they packed their backs immediately.

Jhoanna had grown strong enough to pass the medical examination and finally received free cleft lip surgery at the hands of Dr. Gilbert Esquejo of Philippine Band of Mercy. With her bright new smile, Jhoana is anxiously looking forward to school and hopes to one day become a teacher.

Marikina City, Philippines — When Hanef Abdul Samad was born with a cleft lip or “bingot,” his mother saved as much money as she could to travel nearly 500 miles from the conflict-affected island of Mindanao to Manila to find help. She left her home, her family, and everything she had ever known for the slim chance that her son’s cleft lip could somehow be fixed. Shortly after they arrived in Manila, Hanef was lucky to be screened and scheduled for free cleft surgery by a medical mission group from the USA. All of her hopes had come true. Until the medical mission group suffered from internal problems and Hanef’s surgery was among those cancelled.

Hanef and many more who had been scheduled for surgery would not receive it as the mission group had to leave shortly after they corrected the problems that stalled their good work. Angry at the twists of fate that continually kept her son from a normal life, dejected and forlorn, Hanef’s mother continued on her quest to help her son with an even heavier heart. Unable to find work and watch her son, she reached out to a local charitable organization to help her get on her feet. The organization quickly referred her to a relatively new Smile Train partner, Marikina St. Vincent Hospital. Fearing further disappointment, she was very hesitant to bring Hanef in, but realized that for Hanef, she could never abandon hope.

Within days, Hanef received free cleft surgery under skilled surgeon Dr. Edmundo Mercado and a second chance at life. His mother was relieved of her fears and disappointment and with the help of a Smile Train Smile Grant and the local charity, they were able to begin the long journey home: promising to spread the word about Smile Train.

Having a permanent, local presence where partner hospitals can provide surgery year-round holds Smile Train to our promise to never turn a child away and ensures that temporary setbacks and timetables will not result in cancelled surgeries and lost hope.

Xinie’s family came from Danglas in the Philippines, a very remote town about 140 miles away from Baguio, the nearest city. Her mother, is 19 years old and dependent on Xinie’s grandmother who takes care of her five children: including Xinie’s mother.

When Xinie was born last October 20, 2010 with a cleft lip, the family didn’t even think of getting her cleft repaired. With their current economic status, they had given up hope of cleft surgery; they knew that such an operation would cost them more than they could hope to afford. Last year, they came across Jerry Languisan, one of Project Luke’s community volunteers. Jerry told them that he would bring Xinie to Baguio for surgery. But with a meager family income, they knew that that they won’t be able to shoulder the travel and food expenses they would be incurring. The family told the volunteer that they would still have to save enough money to cover the expenses of their travel.

Some months later Jerry went to Baguio to assist some cataract patients, he mentioned the case and estimated that the family would be needing around Php4,000.00 to come to Baguio. Luckily, Project Luke had just received a grant from Smile Train; Jerry visited the family in Danglas and told them the good news –Xinie didn’t have to wait for months for the operation.

Last May, together with her mother and grandmother, Xinie begin her 7-hour trip to Baguio for the first time. She received surgery from Dr. Dennis Dominguez at Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital. While waiting for her followup, the family said that they had been cutting down on food so they could still have money for bus fare when they go home — even the Xinie’s milk formula had been sacrificed. Project Luke decided to cover their food for their remaining stay at the hospital. The grandmother keep on thanking Smile Train and Project Luke, and to pay forward what blessings she had received now, she hopes and prays that someday Xinie would become a productive citizen.

One of our Smile Train partners, Impact Philippines, which runs four hospitals,  just sent us these pictures along with a special note from the mother of one of our patients. She doesn’t speak English, but Dr. Tian, who performed this great surgery, translated for us.

“I thank you very much for the help you’ve done to my child.  I hope you can continue to help a lot more children. You have made my child beautiful. Thank you very much to all who have helped!”

Dr. Tian wanted to wait until the post operation swelling had gone down and the nurses could finish cleaning her face, but her grandmother insisted that they take the picture with her first new smile.

On their behalf and on behalf of all of our patients and their families, thank you for your support.