Inside this issue...

Changing Lives One Smile at a Time

Operation Smile

newsWinter 2008/09

ProjectsVolunteersFundraisersEventsCorporateStudent ProgrammeHow you can help

Operation Smile UK are delighted toreport on India’s first ComprehensiveCare Centre.

The centre which opened in April 2008at the Kalpataru Hospital situated justoutside Kolkata, was funded bygenerous donations collected during our events programme earlier this year.Volunteers have been working in thisregion since 2005 and have alreadycompleted 500 surgeries, however withthe increased awareness of OperationSmile’s work, many more cases havecome to light and the backlog ofuntreated and unrecorded clefts in thisregion, is forever growing.

The centre is already on target to providefree cleft surgery to more than 450patients in the first year. Working with a local team of 350 medical volunteersthroughout India and further supportfrom all our international foundations,Operation Smile istaking its firststeps towardsa cleft freeIndia.

As well as making great progress with its sustainable development, OperationSmile India will continue to run a large number of projects across the country,ensuring as many patients as possiblereceive treatment. In June, one suchproject in Vijayawada, saw a team of 60 volunteers from 7 different countriescoming together and giving new smilesto 93 patients.

Following this was a project inHyderabad which took place despite the massive flooding which displaced40,000 people. In spite of this, 157families continued their journey throughthe monsoons to be screened byOperation Smile medical volunteers. Of those we were able to help, 112patients received free reconstructivesurgery in just 6 days. One of the UKvolunteers included the PediatricIntensivist, Karthik from Stafford.

projects

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An Indian Summer of Smiles

The project started with a small education and trainingprogramme led by Irish Plastic surgeon Dr. Earley. He worked with 5 local surgeons transferring his skills and 24 years of knowledge to ensure that local childrenin Cambodia receive the best possible care. During theproject 84 surgeries and 88 procedures were performed,with only 3 operating tables being used throughout the10 days. All this could not have been possible if it wasn’tfor the dedication of our volunteers from Ireland, Italy and the UK – special thanks to UK volunteers Kate, Peter,Marco and Annette.

ProjectCambodia Operation Smilevolunteers workedtirelessly from theday they arrived inCambodia to makethis project aresounding success.

Dear Friends,It’s been a wonderful year forOperation Smile with the launch of comprehensive care centres inMorocco and India and more than100 projects taking place in the last 12 months, providing freereconstructive surgery to more than 11,000 patients in 42 different countries.

It is a remarkable achievement and only made possible by yourcontinued support and generosity as well as the fantastic fundraisingactivities you undertake every year – we are extremely grateful.

This addition of our newsletter goessome way to tell you about just afew of the projects that your fundshave helped to support this yearand some personal stories andaccounts from our medicalvolunteers in the field, whocontinue to give their time giving children across the worldnew smiles.

Clefts are the 3rd most commonbirth defect worldwide and it isestimated that every 21/2 minutesanother baby is born with thisheartbreaking facial deformity. Our work has only just begun.

Thank you again for all your endless generosity and kindness,helping us to change lives, onesmile at a time.

Warm regards,

Alexandra Talbot

Executive Director

Dentistry is vital for allchildren, especially so forthose with cleft lips andpalates. Operation SmileMorocco is one of OperationSmile’s oldest partnerfoundations, with a trustedreputation of 10 years.Operation Smile Moroccohave an impressive team ofover 400 dedicated volunteerswho have already providedsurgery and dentistry for morethan 5,500 children with cleftlips and palates.

The dental department in thenew Comprehensive CareCentre in Casablanca, was

funded by a generous grantfrom The Angus LawsonMemorial Trust.

Thanks to their kindness, theCentre boasts state-of-the-artequipment, which allowsOperation Smile Morocco’s 60professional dental volunteersto treat hundreds of childreneach week. In addition, thecentre has been able toprovide educational trainingand development for medicaland non-medical practitionersstrengthening their position asa leading centre of excellencein Morocco.

The Angus Lawson DentalDepartment opens in Morocco

volunteers story

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A Pre and Post Op Nurse of 11 years,Angela wanted to extend her skills topeople who may not have or may not beable to get access to specialist treatmentand care. So one day, she contactedOperation Smile and applied for avolunteer position. Angela did not have allthe necessary paediatric qualificationsneeded to work as a medical volunteerwith Operation Smile. This however didn’tdeter her and so she furthered hertraining and became qualified in PaediatricAdvanced Life Support and found herselfon her first project in Jordan in 2004.

Angela’s most recent project took her toMadagascar in 2008, where a team ofover 52 dedicated volunteers from 7different countries worked together,providing 433 patients with a full medicalevaluations and gave new smiles to 211individuals, who had only dreamed of thissurgery. As well as giving her skills andexpertise to patients, Angela also believesshe benefited greatly from her ownpersonal experiences and interaction witha variety of cultures. ‘As a pre/post-opnurse, I am heavily involved with the

families and patients from the first pointof contact during the screening procedure- right up to the time the patients aredischarged. I think it is wonderful thatOperation Smile offer an on-going careprogramme to patients after their surgeryin the form of dentistry and speechtherapy. It means that every patient canleave feeling they have received the bestpossible care. I find the volunteer work atOperation Smile extremely rewarding andit gives me a huge sense of personalachievement’.

If you are a nurse like Angela or ananaesthetist, surgeon, plastic surgeon,speech therapist, bio-med technician ordentist and interested in volunteeringplease email:leanne.werner@operationsmile.org.uk

Operation Smile UK volunteers haveparticipated in projects in India,Madagascar, Jordon, Morocco,Ethiopia, Kenya, Papa New Guinea,Cambodia, Senegal and Russia thisyear alone.

Angela Wayt

“”

Volunteering at Operation Smile is an extremelyrewarding experience

Angela Wayt decided to become a volunteer after hearing aboutthe amazing work Operation Smile does throughout the world.

fundraisers

events

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Smiles are all around at theLovelock wedding Congratulations to Linda and Kevin Lovelock who weremarried on the 7th of June in Berkshire. The happy couple verygenerously decided to swap their wedding presents for donationsto Operation Smile; ‘We chose a charity that represented newbeginnings and a fresh chance in life. It is the second time aroundfor both Kevin and I and we already have 2 toasters!’.

Linda actually chose to support Operation Smile in memory of ayoung child she remembers from her childhood, who was sadlyreturned to a children’s home after adoption because her newparents didn’t want a child with a cleft lip. Thanks to you both andall your friends and family for giving 13 children a new start in life.

Murray a happy, thriving babyhad his lip and palate repairedwhen he was only 8 monthsold. Seeing the transformationof Murray motivated Guy, withthe help of his wife Yvonne toraise urgently needed funds forOperation Smile, so thatchildren who are not as lucky as Murray, will also have accessto free treatment in thedeveloping world.

‘We feel so fortunate about the care Murray received in thiscountry and know that this isnot the case worldwide. Ourtarget was simply to raiseenough money for 10operations for overseas kidsborn with cleft lips and palates’.

Guy and Yvonne actuallyexceeded their personal targetand have raised enough fundsfor 15 new smiles, after takingpart and successfully completingthe gruelling Chester Triathlon.

Murray’sMiracle

Operation Smile’s bowled over!It was another action packed event at the 2008 CelebrityCricket Tournament, where leading businesses were joinedby professional cricketers which included England’s AndrewStrauss, IPL Champions Dimi Mascarenhas and Jeremy Snapeand South African Captain Graeme Smith.

After 7 hours of nail biting play in the glorious sunshine, IncisiveMedia finally took the tournament cup but not without a toughchallenge from the Agilisys squad. As the sun set over the wornpitch at the stunning Bank of England’s grounds, Operation Smile

Guy and Yvonne’s sonMurray was born witha cleft lip and palate in November 2007.

guests were whisked away to Bollywood with dazzling dancingand traditional cuisine, bindis and garlands for all the guests. The going got tough again after an electrifying auction raising inexcess of £100,000; a truly remarkable score - Howzat! Guestswere all out into the early hours of the morning, it was a trulycracking event. Proceeds from this will be going towardssupporting India’s first comprehensive care centre in Kolkata.

HFFN IV is a ‘real hit! for the kids This year’s Hedge Fund Fight Nite at Old Billingsgate Market packeda mean punch in the city’s turbulent financial markets after raising ajaw dropping £250,000 for Operation Smile projects. For the 4thyear, the brave and the bold traded their suits and ties for shorts andgloves in the capital’s leading white collar boxing event.

16,000ft in 6 days After 3 days of an exhausting climb up Kilimanjaro (thehighest mountain in Africa), Paul Clutterbuck reluctantlyhad to urgently adjust his “summit” attempt. Havingconquered altitude sickness, Paul's only lung was not gettingenough oxygen for the final demands of the climb. However, hispersonal challenge to reach the last camp at a staggering 16,000ftwas achieved in just 6 days! Paul waited for the safe return of hisfellow climbers in his group including his brother Peter and friendMike to return from the summit before all making their descent. It was a remarkable achievement recognised by all his supporters,who in turn have had an impact on the lives of 30 children bornwith cleft lips and plates.

Paul has continued to support Operation Smile with the recentpublication of his first book – ‘Inside Amsterdam’, a wonderfuland personal insight into the bars and cafes of the City. Verygenerously, a donation from the sale of this book will be made to Operation Smile.

Amongst the 500 guests were boxing legends Steve Collins, BarryMcGuigan as well as rugby heroes John Conteh and Paul Sacki.

Ogier’s Ahmed Khan was awarded, ‘fighter of the night’, after 3gruelling bouts against Andrew Higginbottam, the Aussie from theventure capitalists, Ten 3. Also packing a big financial punch, wasMAN Financial’s Luke ‘The Wild Boy’ Turpin. As the name suggests,this highwayman hero acquired a staggering £13,000 from his loyalsupporters but had to give himself up when he took on the bullnecked fighter Dick Munton who only had two things on his minddestroy and destruct. A huge thank you goes to all our fighters whorigorously trained for over 5 months before stepping into the ring,thank you, you are our heroes!

If you fancy yourself as the next Rocky Balboa then contact us assoon as possible to book your place in the HFFN V.

Coming up in March 2009…. Grab your chips, put your shades on and saddle up to the tablefor the 2009 Operation Smile Poker Championship! A Texashold’em poker showdown for players of all abilities, who willcome up against each other, with the winners from each tablemoving to a head-to-head final, where the sharks will get to eatthe fish!

Don’t miss out on this great evening and book your place now by contacting us at: info@operationsmile.org.uk

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6 miles for 14 smilesSimon, Wafa, Cathy, Balaji and Ben took to the streets of London on the 6th July running the British ACIS 10kLondon run for Operation Smile. Balaji who crossed the finish line in just under 60 minutes was literally running for his wife as she was expected to give birth on the same day! ‘I thought I might be racing to hospital in time to see our secondbaby delivered!’ he commented. Despite the rain it was a great

sense of achievement for allthe runners who raised£3,000 for Operation Smileprojects. We have somemore places alreadyconfirmed for July 2009 soplease hurry and book yourplace now to avoiddisappointment!

Peak ChallengeAlan Rivers, long term supporter and fundraiser ofOperation Smile set himself a fantastic personal challengeearly in the year when he decided to climb the peaks ofboth Mont Blanc and Kilimanjaro within the space of only2 weeks!

Alan’s focus and determination saw him hitting the highestpoints of both the summit and his own personal target – amomentous £20,000! Alan dedicated the funds to a project inVientiane, Laos which took place in March 2008 and provided80 patients with life changing surgery. It was a remarkableachievement both personally and for the children’s lives hechanged. Thank you so much Alan and all your friends andfamily who supported you on this wonderful endeavour.

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Q-Med raise £9,000Biotechnology company Q-Med havecontinued their ongoing support ofOperation Smile by raising £9,000 throughtheir 'Science Proven' conference held atthe Royal College of Physicians inSeptember 2008. The conference sawmany leaders in the field of naturalenhancements come together for astimulating day of talks and networking. It is the 4th year that ‘Q-Med’ havesupported Operation Smile and this year,we were delighted to be presented with a

giant cheque!

corporate

Dial ‘n’ Smile at BrakesBrakes, the UK’s leading catering supplierengaged each of their call centres in Runcorn,Tamworth, Focus Corby, Motherwell & Bridgendto come up with innovative ways to raise fundsfor Operation Smile. Director of Telesales, RozTaylor said “When you work in a salesenvironment you are constantly looking for newway to motivate your team to achieve theirgoals. During 2007 we launched our ‘Smile nDial’ Corporate Telesales Incentive Scheme; wehad a fantastic first year and wanted to add a‘Challenge’ that would bring the teams evencloser together. In 2008 we partnered withOperation Smile. The ‘Challenge’ has movedfrom the usual competitiveness between sites to us acting at ‘One Big Team’ that wants to bepart of changing as many lives as possible; andwe are, with over 100 smiles in 9 months”. Just some of the events that have taken placethis year by the fantastic Brakes team include a Pyjama Party, Irish Bingo Day, Bash theDonkey competition (no animals were hurtduring this competition!), Beach Party, FancyDress Day, Brakes Got Talent Competition and the Dragon Boat Racing. Thank you to you all for your infectious enthusiasm!

There are so many more Corporate Smile Ambassadors to thank but wesimply can’t fit you all in! Thank you all so much for your wonderful andcontinued support!

Agilisys ‘raises’smiles!Agilisys a leading contact service specialisthave been raising smiles throughout theircall centres across the UK. At the Barrowoffice in June, the team arranged a beachparty where representatives had to takecalls whilst playing volleyball! They alsomade smiley cakes and even one sportinggentleman was sponsored to wear only apair of trunks for the day! Events includeda fancy dress competition, space hopperraces, hula hoop competition, a raffle anda barbeque. Barrow even has its ownOperation Smile tuck shop that generatesfunds as well as keeping the staff stockedup on chocolate and fizzy drinks. Theyhave also a weekly bonus ball draw wherethe person who selects the bonus ballreceives £30 and the remaining £19 eachweek goes to Operation Smile.

Agilisys have got offto a fantastic startalready bankingin excess of£6,000.

Huggies‘Super Smilers’Huggies Super-Dry nappies raised a massive£15,000 after they searched for the face ofSuper-Dry with the ‘super-smilercompetition’ in January. Thousands ofproud mums and dads uploaded photos oftheir children and got friends and family tovote for them. Not only did they raisemuch needed funds for Operation Smileprojects but also awareness of the problemsfacing children in developing countries bornwith cleft lips and palates.

Huggies Brand Manager Paul and colleagueHelen joined Operation Smile’s inauguralproject to Madagascar in May. Paul andHelen were able to see first hand how the money raised by donations from the competition were used on projects. The turnout was phenomenal and wayexceeded the expectations of the

volunteers. 211 individuals were able toreceive surgery on this occasion, but over200 others had to be turned away but wereasked to return in November, when theteam goes back to provide even morechildren with new smiles! Summing up histime on the project, Huggies BrandManager Paul commented; “This really wasa once in a lifetime opportunity to witnessfirst hand the great work that OperationSmile does and experience the hard workand team spirit that goes into every project.Normally companies donate money to goodcauses without really knowing the full storyof how it is spent. Direct involvement, bothon an emotional and physical level, means abetter understanding of what you aresupporting and more importantly confirmswhy we should continue to partner withsuch an amazing charity’.

Sarum Hall School don’t hidebehind their masks!Students and teachers at Sarum Hall School deserve a very bigOperation Smile thank you after raising a staggering £4,270 earlier this year and helped to give 28 new smiles to childrensuffering from facial deformities. Pupils held a number of exciting fundraising events including a cake sale, a mask making competition, smiley face cards and also a very successfulice-lolly sale! Thank you all and keep smiling Sarum Hall!

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student programme

Latymer students take to the sales! Operation Smile would like to offer a huge thankyou and congratulations to Latymer School for

raising an enormous £4,530. Back in the autumn, Operation Smile gave

students and teachers a specialpresentation that propelled Latymerpupils to raise money by holding aseries of events including a MuftiDay and a bring ‘n’ buy sale. Two of the students even askedtheir friends to make a donation

to Operation Smile rather thanreceiving birthday presents and

instead gave their best wishes to other children who are less fortunate.

Headteacher, Stuart Dorrianpresented their giantcheque in March this year.Thank you all, for your

wonderful support!

Why not set up yourown student club andhelp ‘raise a smile’ inyour school?We have a wonderful programme packed full offun ideas for friends, family and teachers to getinvolved in. You could take part in the ‘Miles forSmiles’ race, have a baking competition or evensew some smile bags for Operation Smilepatients to take home after surgery. Get intouch with us now for some more informationabout how we can support your fundraisingevents or download a free pack from our website

www.operationsmile.org.uk/programs/students

Give

me a smile!

Operation Smile

Cleft lip and palates are the 3rd mostcommon birth defect, with 1 childevery 21/2 minutes being born in theworld with this deformity.

Miraya is just one of the 120,000 patients we have been able to treatthanks to your generosity, however there are still many more childrenwho need our help. We have projects that urgently need funding inIndia, Ethiopia, Jordan, Morocco and Kenya so we can continue totreat many hundreds of thousands still waiting for surgery.

It costs as little as £150 and can take only 45 minutes to change a life forever. Please help us in anyway you can to treat some of the most vulnerable children in the developing world.

how can you help

Operation Smileurgent appeal

Miraya’s Story

Three-year-old Miraya travelled 14 hours by bus with hermother to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, hoping to be selected fromamong 258 children for an Operation Smile reconstructivesurgery to correct her cleft lip. She was one of the luckypatients to be chosen and after a 45-minute operationand just one night stay in hospital, she was released intothe loving arms of her mother. With a now-sparklingsmile, Miraya returned to her village to Cochabamba toshow off her new look. Her future has been transformedinto one filled with promise and hope.

Give

me a smile!

Operation Smile

Give

me a smile!

Operation Smile

Draw a smile on our face.Send the stickers and donation tous and we’ll makesure it gives thekids a smile!

Changing Lives One Smile at a Time

Name:

Address:

Postcode:

Email: Telephone:

Help us get 25% extra!“if you pay UK tax * and you tick the Gift Aid box on this sheet Operation Smile UK will be able to claim an extra 25% from the government. It won’t cost you a penny”

*You need to have paid UK tax this year at least equal to 25% we will claim

Please find enclosed my donation for: £______________ (cheques should be made payable to Operation Smile UK)

I am a UK taxpayer, please gift aid my donation

I would like more information on:

Donating Events Volunteering

Newsletter Projects Student Programme

Please return to: Operation Smile UK, 4th Floor, Horatio House, 77 Fulham Palace Rd, London, W6 8JA

Tel: 0844 581 1110www.operationsmile.org.uk

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It costs as little as £150 to change a child’s life forever.