Saving Lives One Smile At a Time with Operation Smile

As human beings we can say so much with just a smile. We can smile acceptance, a twitch of the lips is a smile of amusement, a half smile might be considered endearing perhaps even charming. While the smiles of adults and adolescents are filled with a plethora of different meanings and often come forth for different reasons the smile of a child is simply the universal sign for joy. When a child smiles you know they are genuinely happy and their megawatt smiles are the energy that make this world go 'round.

"Every 3 minutes a child is born with a cleft and 1 in 10 of these children will die before their first birthday. The children who manage to survive are often unable to eat, speak, socialize or even smile. In some places they are shunned and rejected...and in too many cases, their parents can't afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a productive life." 

Can you imagine being a child and unable to do the essential things we need such as eat or even speak? Can you imagine what agony a child who cannot socialize or smile must go through..unable to communicate, unable to share their joy with their family/loved ones? To be shunned from society for something that could be remedied with donations from people just like you?

"Operation Smile is an international medical charity that heals children's smiles, forever changing their lives. As an international charity for children, they measure themselves by the joy they see on all the faces they help. At Operation Smile, they're more than a charity. More than an NGO. They're a mobilized force of medical professions and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery and related medical care for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate." 

Operation Smile is the largest volunteer based medical charity providing cleft surgeries. Since 1982 they've provided more than 3.5 billion patient evaluations and over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with facial deformities. Just think of all the joyful smiles of children all over the world who have benefited from Operation Smile and their dedicated volunteers!

You may wonder what you can do to help support Operation Smile and the answer is simple. There are many different ways to help support Operation Smile as they continue to grow and give their gifts for healing to children in need. A donation of as little as $5 will go towards the cost of surgery. No amount is too small and you can donate as much as you'd like. While $250 pays for one surgery, any funding that exceeds the cost of surgery will go towards the OS sustainability programs which empower their partner countries to treat more children on their own.

Other ways to help OS are personal fundraising, volunteer programs and there's even a Gift catalog you can order from whose proceeds go straight back to Operation Smile!

Are you a college student or parent with a child currently in college? CampusBookRentals is a great Text Book rental site that not only saves YOU and your child money on the price of text books but they also donate to Operation Smile with each Text Book purchase you make!

There's nothing more radiant or inspiring than the smile of a child. Head over to Operation Smile today and see what you can do to give the gift of a beautiful smile to a child in need!