U.S. charity "Smile Train" funds surgery for Chinese cleft lip patients

Source: Xinhua | 01-15-2009 08:20

BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- "Smile Train," a U.S.-based charity for patients suffering from cleft lip and palate disease, announced here Wednesday it would raise funds to offer free surgery for all low-income cleft lip patients in China over the next five years.

Such operations cost several thousand yuan, "Smile Train" founder and chairman Charles Wang said.

China has 2.4 million children with cleft palates and about 25,000 babies are born with the ailment each year, government statistics show.

The charity has set up partnerships with 397 hospitals nationwide, said Shell Xue, the charity's chief project officer for the China branch.

"The charity has conducted 160,000 surgeries for children born with cleft lip and palate deformities in China since 1999," more than any charity organization of its kind, Xue said.

Initiated in 1997, "Smile Train" aims to fund surgery for people aged between zero and 40 who are from poor families and suffer from cleft lip and palate disease in developing countries. As of December 2008, it had funded surgery for 380,000 cleft lip patients in 76 countries.

Editor:Liu Anqi