Every three minutes, a child is born with a clef lip. Children with these conditions[1] bave terrible problems with eating, drinking and speaking and one in ten of tbem die before their first birthday. The luckier ones live, but they are often rejected by friends and sometimes even by their own families.
In rich countries, simple surgeries[3] can correct most of these mouth problems and allow children to live normal lives. But in poorer countries, the operations are too expensive for ordinary people and there are not enough doctors who can do them.
In 1982, American doctor Bill Magee and his wife Kathy, a nurse, went to the Philippines to do some cleft lip surgeries. But it was a short trip and there was no time to help all the children who needed surgery. They felt terribly guilty. When they got home, they started a new charity. They called it Operation Smile.
Now Operation Smile works in more than sixty countries. Five thousand volunteers give their time and skills to provide free mouth surgery to the children who need it most. The charity also provides medical equipment and trains local doctors to do the surgery themselves. In this way, the results of an Operation Smile visit continue long into the future.
When an international group of doctors and nurses travels to a country, two secondary school students go, too. The students are usually people who have done a lot of fundraising[4] in their local area and told a lot of people about the work of Operation Smile. Their trip is a fantastic way to experience a completely different culture and help to change lives forever.
| Word box [1]condition n.状况 [2]reject v.拒绝 [3]surgery n.外科手术[4]fundraising n.募捐；筹款 |
