This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
Millions of children around theworld suffer from an easily corrected medical condition called cleftlip. A cleft is a separation in the lip of the mouth. Children canalso suffer from cleft palate. That is a separation in the top ofthe mouth or the soft tissue in the back of the mouth.
Cleft lip or palate normally develops in the early weeks ofpregnancy. Asian children are among those in which the condition isseen most often. Males have the condition more often than females.Researchers believe that genetic material passed on to children fromtheir parents may cause cleft lip or palate. Environmental thingslike drugs, sickness, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy mayalso cause the condition.
A simple operation often performed between the first nine andeighteen months of life can repair this condition. Doctors say thatwithout it, children in developing countries are more likely tosuffer a life of poor nutrition, condemnation and separation fromtheir communities.
The Smile Train is among the groups at work to end this problem.This non-governmental organization is based in the United States. Itprovides local doctors in developing countries with training andequipment needed to perform cleft operations.
In Pakistan, for example, The Smile Train has given AlliedHospital at the Punjab Medical College gifts of money, equipment andtraining. The aid will help Pakistan reduce its cleft lip and palatepopulation – which the group says may be the fourth highest in theworld.
The organization has also provided equipment and training toMalaysia’s medical community. The Smile Train says over one-thousandchildren are born with a cleft condition each year in Malaysia. Andin Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Smile Train has given the UniversityClinic Center in Sarajevo aid to improve its cleft care for poorchildren. The Smile Train provides services and programs in morethan fifty countries.
The organization was started in nineteen-ninety-nine. Every yearsince then, it has provided free cleft operations to more thanthirty-five-thousand children around the world. Local doctors do theoperations which take as little as forty-five-minutes. The SmileTrain pays for the operations with money it collects. It says theaverage cost is about two-hundred-fifty dollars.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.