January
6th, 2012, New York, NY: Smile Train,
the world’s leading cleft charity with over
2,200 partner surgeons operating in over
1,100 partner hospitals in over 80
countries, today announced that it has
performed its 250,000th cleft repair surgery
in China, since it began operations there in
1999. All 250,000 surgeries have been
performed by local Chinese surgeons.
Smile Train
was founded in 1999 with the mission of
providing every child born with a cleft the
same opportunities in life as a child born
without.
This
milestone, marked by three reconstructive
surgeries performed simultaneously by three
local surgeons in three operating rooms in
General Coal Hospital in Beijing, China,
reflects the impact of the Smile Train model
and how small donations can make large
changes in children’s lives. Seven
celebrities from different professional
fields were also on hand to help celebrate
this surgery milestone, including Kun JIANG,
Zhao Ming and Zhou Zhibo.
Charles B.
Wang, Co-Founder & Chairman commented on the
charity’s milestone accomplishment: “Our
collaborations with locally-based surgeons
and partner hospitals around the world
enable us to help so many children in need.
We are so proud to have achieved this
record-breaking number of surgeries in China
as we strive to reach a goal of 750,000
surgeries performed throughout the world by
June 2012.”
Smile Train
closely collaborates with the Ministry of
Health of the People’s Republic of China [MOH],
the China Charity Federation [CCF], the
Chinese Stomatological Association [CSA],
and partners with 397 hospitals throughout
the country.
Smile Train uses the latest
technology to provide efficient surgeries to
children around the world. The organization
created the first virtual surgery software
for cleft and produced an entire library of
advanced 3-D animations used to train
thousands of surgeons around the world.
“With a donation of $250 we
are able to provide a child with a second
chance at life and are thankful to have such
dedicated people working to improve the
lives of these children,” said Priscilla Ma,
Smile Train Executive Director. “We also
thank our generous donors for making
this possible.”
About Smile Train
Founded in 1999, Smile Train is the world’s
largest cleft charity with thousands of
partners and programs in many of the world's
poorest countries. Smile Train provides free
cleft lip and cleft palate surgery to
children from poor families that give a
child not just a new smile, but a chance at
a new life. Smile Train has provided
financial support and training to on-ground
institutions in 80+ countries around the
world. For more information go to
www.smiletrain.org
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