I just watched a very moving documentary called Smile Pinki. The movie is short, only 45 minutes, and is about children with cleft palates from extremely poor places in India. The movie follows a few of them from their villages to a hospital, where thanks to the charity, Smile Train, they can have surgery for free.
The movie actually won an Oscar earlier this year as best documentary. It is playing on HBO right now and I highly, highly recommend you watch it. Learning how these kids are afraid to go to school and how radically this simple surgery changes their lives is magical and inspiring. Here is a trailer:
And here is a link for the Smile Train charity:Smile Train
As long as these cleft palate charities keep posting pictures of this in newspaper ads, I won’t donate a dime to them. The last thing I want to see when I’m eating lunch while reading the paper is a photo of a kid with a cleft lip. If they tone it down with the in-your-face photos of deformed kids, I’d consider donating to them.
I have a eight-month old child who was born with a cleft lip and palate. I don’t consider him “deformed” and I have photos posted of him everywhere. What is really ugly is your attitude.
Before my son was born, I didn’t realize how common cleft lips/palates are. I am grateful to live in a country that does an amazing job of taking care of my son’s medical issues. I am proud to donate to these charities because it could so easily have been my son.