Smile Train aim to fund 100% free cleft repair surgery for children in developing countries.

Adhithya was born with a cleft lip in a small village located in Nepal’s Himalayan Valley. When his grandparents saw him for the first time, they said that his cleft lip was “the work of the devil” and they told his mother that someone needed to kill this “child of Satan” before he cursed the entire village.

Adhithya’s father, Suresh, was working at a hotel, hundreds of miles away in India so that he could send money home to help support his newborn son. Suresh was mortified when he received a call from his father ordering him to come home and kill his son for the sake of the rest of the village.

When Suresh returned home, he looked into his Adhithya’s eyes and he did not see a devil at all – instead, he instantly fell in love. Against his parents’ wishes, Suresh grabbed Adhithya, his wife, and the few possessions they could carry and they fled the country to India.

Once the family arrived in India, Suresh went to a local hospital where he was informed that cleft surgery would cost £740. Suresh worked double shifts and holidays for more than a year to save money, but it would take many more years for him to be able to afford Adhithya’s surgery.

Everything changed when Suresh saw someone staying at the hotel he worked at reading a newspaper with an image of a child who had an untreated cleft lip. The image turned out to be an advertisement for free cleft surgery at the local Smile Train partner, Meenakshi Hospital.

A few days before his second birthday, Adhithya received his free cleft lip surgery. Suresh tried to thank Smile Train partner surgeon Dr Saumya Tripathi by giving him his life savings, but the doctor explained that Smile Train donors provide the funds for free cleft surgeries across the globe for families like his. “I see an immeasurable amount of joy on Suresh’s face when he sees his son’s pretty smile. With all the family has gone through, it makes perfect sense,” says Tripathi.