GIFT-A-SMILE

Your funding will help underprivileged children living with cleft lip and palate get a new lease of life. This year be a "Smile Maker and Give Smiles "

Cleft lip and cleft palate are facial and oral malformations that happen early in pregnancy. This happens while the baby is developing inside the mother and there is not enough tissue in the mouth or lip area and the tissue that is available does not join together properly.It causes  issues at birth itself as children cannot feed , are malnourished and many of them die. It also causes speaking issues, hearing problems and has a facial disfigurement aspect.

JUST FUND ANY AMOUNT FROM INR 100 to 20000 INR  AND YOU CAN GIVE A NEW LEASE OF LIFE TO CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM CLEFT. HELP ME RAISE INR 20,000 & IMPACT 2 CHILDREN WITH FREE SURGERIES.

ABOUT ME AND THE CAMPAIGN

Hello, I am Arnav Agrawal of Class 9th at the DPS East, Bengaluru. I love reading books, playing badminton and football among others. I had always been amazed by the concept of crowd funding, when I had been introduced to it by my dad, as the two cents of numerous people can make a million dollars. I, as a kid, have seen many instances of other kids being bullied, for their physique or simply because they are not that sharp as compared to others. In India, there are over 1 million cases of cleft lip. What is cleft lip? It is a developmental disorder where their is a gap in the upper lip of the baby. It is present from birth. Because of their physical "ugliness", people ignore children affected by this disease and they are considered as equivalent to that of garbage. The only treatment of cleft lip is by surgical intervention. Why should you fund my campaign? Because I think it is a noble cause and deserves support. It costs just INR 10000 to change a child's life through surgery. Please do support me with my campaign to raise funds to treat these children. “I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.” ― Charles de Lint

A cleft lip is a common and curable birth defect in children. Unfortunately, in developing countries, most clefts remain untreated. But isn’t cleft just a cosmetic problem? It is not. Untreated children barely have a chance in life. Even the intake of valuable mother’s milk constitutes a major challenge. Especially open palates make a child far more prone to undernourishment and 1 in 10 children die before their first birthday. Just one surgery can change a child's life forever.

Cleft children are often harassed, teased and this leads to humiliation and a lack of self-worth. Says Vasantha who was born with the cleft "The way people looked at me was depressing.I didn't want to go out." That was what she called the most difficult time of her life. 

Only 10,000 INR for surgical correction of the cleft lip can transform a kids life forever.

SUCCESS STORY: Neha's smile, a ray of hope

The birth of a child is usually related to feelings of joy and happiness. Not in Neha’s case though. Neha was born with an open lip and palate. Shafir, Neha’s father started screaming and was extremely angry on seeing his daughter with this deformity. He was blaming his wife for Neha’s deformity and finally abandoned her and the family.

For Salma, with the birth of little Neha began the worst period in her life. She was in a state of shock. What should she do with Neha? And how was she supposed to bring up her three children alone and take care of her sick mother? There followed terrible days of tears and despair. Salma felt so helpless, she saw no way out. Moreover, Neha needed more attention and care because it was difficult to feed her. Salma had no choice: while her mother looked after the children, she worked from early to late as a cook to feed the family.After Shafir left the house, Salma, the kids and her mother had to move into a single room in a slum near Neelasandra area in Bangalore, where she now lives in a shared house with her brother’s family. A year after of these hardships, Salma finally saw a glimpse of hope, when a neighbour told her about the visit of a Project coordinator from ABMSS. Salma gathered all her courage and called our person. She could hardly believe when he told her that Neha’s operation would be done free of cost and gave her an appointment with our surgeon Dr. Manu Prasad, at our cleft centre in Mysore, Karnataka.

There she was also told that she is not responsible for the development of the deformity of her daughter. Salma could finally take off that burden of her shoulders. After all the months of helplessness and pain, she gained the hope and confidence that her girl would have a normal, healthy childhood. Dr. Manu Prasad operated Neha’s lip so well that only a tiny scar remained.

Now, Neha has to undergo the second important operation to close her palate. Only then will she get the chance to eat without problems and to learn to speak correctly. Neha is already a curious little girl who loves to play with her siblings and watch her mother with enthusiasm while she is cooking. Thanks to Salma, who did not give up on her daughter, Neha will now be able to lead a normal life with dignity!

HOW YOU CAN HELP & HOW FUNDS WILL BE USED  

We are raising money to cover the cost of the cleft surgery & the smallest amount you contribute will help them to bring back a smile. 

After the money has been collected it will be transferred by Fueladream to ABMSS. It will take from 30 to 90 days after that to get details of who the beneficiary was with details of them as the surgeries take some time. Once I get this information from the team at ABMSS, I shall upload this on the UPDATES section of this campaign. You will then get an alert & can read details about the beneficiaries.

The details will include before and after pictures of the child who got the surgery, with name, date of surgery and other details pertaining to the procedure.

SURGERY COSTS 

Every 10000 INR raised will fund a surgery. The total cost of a surgery is INR 13500. ABMSS has a funder/funders who will fund 3500 INR. All we need to fund is thus 10000 INR. Help me raise 20000 INR and change the lives of two children.

ABMSS –ABOUT US 

AKILA BHARATHA MAHILA SEVA SAMAJA (ABMSS) is a non-profit organisation that supports surgeries for cleft children from poor families. We are headquartered in Bengaluru. We have 14 cleft centres all across India whom we  work closely with. Each centre has a highly motivated team of surgeons, anaesthesiologists, orthodontists and speech therapists. Our effort is to promote the concept of comprehensive, interdisciplinary treatment of cleft children. In addition to these services directed to the patient, the organisation also supports awareness work in rural areas and education of doctors and medical personnel involved in supporting the charitable cause. With the help of our charitable donors we manage to treat about 2000 patients every year.  ABMSS is the Indian affiliate of Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe e.V.

ABMSS CENTRES PAN INDIA 

TAX BENEFITS 

The money from this campaign will be given to ABMSS. They will issue receipts to all funders. Since they are a NGO any funding will have tax benefits for those filing taxes in India.