Ms. Ho Thi Ngu came for the screening of Operation Smile mission in Thua Thien Hue at almost noon, carrying all sorts of things under her arm, along with her two young children. The 6-year-old son has a cleft lip, but his face is still bright. She said that they took the bus from 5:00 a.m., and it took them 6 hours to get here. “This morning, I didn’t have breakfast yet, I just bought a bag of longans to ease my hunger”, she said.
The family come from Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province, and are Van Kieu people. The father was working far away in Binh Duong for a few days so he couldn’t come back. She quitted her farm work and sent her 8-year-old eldest child to the grandmother to make her way here looking for an opportunity to treat her son’s cleft lip. She confided that she was very scared when she came here. She never dared to let her child have surgery because she was afraid of the risks during the surgery. But when seeing her little son being teased by his friends and called ugly, then the boy just got home crying with his mother, she loves him and feels very sorry for her baby. Seeing the fact that a few other children were as unlucky as her son but had now been cured, while her child had not yet, she made up her mind to take her child to the mission.
Come to Operation Smile’s surgical mission at Hue Odontal Stomatological Hospital, they can receive dedicated examination and advices from doctors. Furthermore, the program also supports accommodation during the waiting days for surgery and travel expenses, so she was more confident taking her child into the operating room. Sitting outside the OR, the mother’s eyes were filled with the complex of worry, joy and hope for her child’ s new smile. And as the biggest reward for a long journey, Dung’s smile was perfectly healed after the surgery. So, from now on, he will be a more confident boy, no longer afraid of being shunned by friends or the society, his life will be much brighter and deserving of a basic thing that all children should have – the SMILE.