Appu is 7 years old. He loves climbing trees, playing with his sister & like most kids in his age, loves sweets. Appu, however, does not smile much. He suffers from one of the most common deformities among human beings – a cleft lip and palate. A one-hour operation will change all that!
Every year there are about 35,000 children in India like Appu, born with cleft lips or palates. A cleft lip is a common and curable birth defect in children. Unfortunately, in developing countries, most clefts remain unrepaired. 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.
Cleft children are often harassed, teased and this leads to humiliation and a lack of self-worth. Vasanthi’s story (mentioned in the video), captures a snapshot of this challenge most individuals with Cleft Lip and Palate face. Hers was what she called the most difficult time of her life. "The way people looked at me was depressing," she says. "I didn't want to go out."
AKILA BHARATHA MAHILA SEVA SAMAJA (ABMSS) is a non-profit organization that supports surgeries for cleft children from poor families. In 14 cleft centres all across India we closely work together with highly motivated 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 organization 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.
*An additional Rs. 500 goes towards administrative costs.
Our goal is to raise INR 30 Lakhs, as that will help us provide surgeries to over 200 children with cleft defects. We aim to treat this common birth defect that is not affordable by the families of these children.
Only INR 13,500 to provide a surgery to a child with a cleft defect; that means to completely change one child’s life and give him/her a better future.
You can part fund a surgery with a donation from as low as100 INR or fund the entire surgery.
Share our campaign: Fund us, spread the word to your friends & family. Tell them through social media shares so that they know about the good you are doing and also learn about our cause.
Our team will post updates on this crowdfunding campaign page after every milestone that you helped fund & share it with all of those who have been gracious enough to fund us. Those who fund an entire surgery will get a beneficiary report with all the details of the patient and the surgery emailed to them. We are also very happy to receive feedback from your side.
Thank you so much for your wonderful support, further details are coming up soon.
Thank you so much for your wonderful support, further details are coming up soon.
The start has been done and the first percentage has been raised. Two children can be operated from that money. But we think bigger... Help us push the campaign and make 200 kids smile!!
Having seen our video, read about air hostess Vasanthi in the Bangalore Mirror!
http://www.bangaloremirror.com/columns/you/Bringing-her-smile-back/articleshow/50892026.cms
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