| Smile Train | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1999 [1] |
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit |
| Headquarters | New York, New York |
| Executive director | Priscilla Ma |
| Website | Smiletrain.org |
Smile Train is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City with the mission of providing free corrective surgery for children with cleft lip and palate in about 80 developing countries. Founded in 1999, Smile Train focuses on providing free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals. By March 2008, Smile Train had facilitated more than 280,000 cleft surgeries in 74 countries, raising $84 million with a staff of 30 people.[2] By 2011, it had assisted over 650,000 children.[1]
In early 2011, Smile Train and Operation Smile announced the two charities would merge,[3][4] followed three weeks later by announcements the merger had been aborted,[5] Smile Train having canceled the union.[6] Smile Train's board also named Priscilla Ma the executive director of the organization, while other board members and directors stepped down.[7]
Smile Train uses technology including surgery-training software[8] and grading of operations via digital imaging to increase efficiency.[2] Co-founder Brian Mullaney suggested in 2005 that Smile Train is close to performing a greater number of operations each year than the number of children born each year in developing countries with cleft deformities.[2]
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Before Smile Train, Mullaney handled advertising accounts for cosmetic surgeons. He happened to see children on the subway who could use the help of the New York City surgeons he represented. In 1991, he began a pilot program that offered free surgeries to city children, the scope of which eventually grew to include the entire metropolitan school district. Surgeons who had been clients of his agency donated time and skills, while Mullaney raised funds to cover the operating expenses.[9][10] In this arrangement, surgeons donated their services, and Mullaney raised money for expenses.[10] Mullaney called the project Operation Smile, subsequently learning of the prior existence of the Operation Smile cleft surgery organization in Norfolk, Virginia.[10] Later, Mullaney's project and Operation Smile merged, with Mullaney also bringing prominent donor Charles B. Wang.[10] Mullaney started a model within Operation Smile to train doctors and health professionals locally in developing countries where surgery would be performed, paying them directly.[10] In the fall of 1998, Mullaney and Wang split from Operation Smile and co-founded Smile Train in New York in 1999.[10]
Smile Train has formed partnerships with 1,100 hospitals in 76 countries, many of which are among the world’s poorest nations, and through these local partnerships, the organization is able to provide free surgery for children, any day of the year.[11][12][13]
China was the first country in which Smile Train operated, having split off from Operation Smile.[14] The relationship between the would-be organization and China began when Mullaney and Wang worked with then U.S. and Chinese presidents George H. W. Bush and Jiang Zemin to gain access for training local surgeons and supporting hospitals in some of that country’s poorest regions. According to its Ministry of Health, China documents 2.4 million children with cleft palates, and about 25,000 additional babies born with the ailment each year.[15] In recognition of Smile Train's work in China, Mullaney was awarded the Soong Ching-ling Camphor Tree honorary award.[16]
In 2000, Smile Train formed a partnership with Russian Children's Welfare Society (RCWS) to provide surgeries to disadvantaged children in Russia.[17] In 2008, Smile Train formed a partnership with DFS Group (a travel retailer) and The Moodie Report, a business service for the travel retail industry.[12]
The organization supports financially and participates in various symposiums that educate and train doctors and medical professionals by the hundreds, focusing on recent innovations in cleft palate surgery techniques. For example, Smile Train sponsored the Pan African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate in 2006[18] and in 2009,[19] as well as the 2008 Pan African Anaesthesia Symposium.[20]
Also in 2008, Smile Train was the runner-up in the Health-Care IT category of the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards. The recognition was for training videos that presented advanced cleft surgery techniques demonstrated by experts, to doctors stationed in remote, impoverished areas of the world. The DVDs were produced in English, Spanish, and Mandarin language versions.[21]
In India, the annual incidence of cleft in newborns is over 32,000 cases. Since it has been working in India, Smile Train’s program there has helped approximately 200,000 children.[22] However, the need remains great in India, where over one million children still await surgery, and currently only half of children born with cleft ever get the care they need. Smile Train partnered with Bollywood actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, for her to serve as an ambassador, increasing awareness and garnering financial support to help the plight of children born with cleft. Her work with Smile Train will focus not only on India, but on 76 different developing countries around the world.[23]
The following celebrities and notable leaders have pledged varying forms of support for Smile Train:[24]
Smile Pinki (2008) was a documentary, produced by Smile Train and directed by Megan Mylan.[25] The film shows the story of a poor girl in rural India whose life is transformed when she receives free surgery to correct her cleft lip. The documentary was made in Hindi and Bhojpuri, and won the 81st Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). The film's protagonist, Pinki Sonkar, rose from obscurity and shame in Mirzapur to international fame and the Hollywood red carpet because of the publicity that the Oscar-winning film received.[26] By the time Bill Maher announced that Smile Pinki won the Oscar, Pinki had fallen asleep in her father’s arms. The doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Subodh Singh, said that the Oscar honor should bring worldwide attention to children with cleft lip and palate. When news of the win reached Sonkar's village Dabai in the Mirzapur district, a huge procession of over 500 people took to the streets to celebrate the win.[27]
Brian Mullaney worked in advertising for more than 20 years,[28] founded Schell/Mullaney Advertising, served as Senior Vice President, Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson and Vice President, Creative Director at Young & Rubicam. Mullaney earned a bachelor's degree in business economics from Harvard University.[28] He lives on Long Island, New York with his wife Cricket and his children Maura, Charlie and Quinn.[29]
Charles B. Wang co-founded Computer Associates International with Russ Artz[30] (CA became the first software company to exceed $1 billion USD in sales.[31][32]) Wang merged his technological talent with his philanthropic efforts, aiding in the development of the Smile Train Virtual Surgery Lab[33] and the Smile Train Express.
In 2009, Smile Train initiated an advertising campaign [40] in the Richmond Times highlighting Smile Train's attempts between 2006 and 2009 to donate nearly $9 million to Operation Smile,[41] the organization Brian Mullaney had split from in 1998 in what Mullaney described as a "messy divorce."[10]
In the ad, Mullaney contended Operation Smile was refusing money that could benefit children, later calling the situation "shameful";[41] Mullaney also noted that he respects that in some countries need overwhelms available doctors and he had "a newfound respect for what Operation Smile does."[10] The Virginian Pilot outlined the history and differences between the two organizations and indicated Mullaney wanted the two organizations to reconcile.[10]
Dr. Magee of Operation Smile declined a newspaper interview. His organization responded to the ad campaign, saying the two organizations "have different operating philosophies and business ethics," and that Operation Smile would continue foregoing donations from an "unproductive relationship."[10]