Once considered a burden by her family and bullied by her classmates for her deformity, today, 13-year-old Sushila does not just look pretty but is also able to pursue her education from a good private school of the city.
Born with cleft to a family of daily wage labourers, Sushila was always considered a curse till her father came to know about Devkamal Hospital, where free surgeries for cleft is performed for children with the support of international organisation Smile Train.
When she was 8, Sushila was operated and her cleft corrected. “Now, I am not made fun of by my classmates and they let me play with them.”
Her father, Anganu Kachchap, a resident of Kamre said, “I am thankful to Devkamal Hospital, who not only corrected my daughter’s deformity but also is financing her education in a good private school in our locality.”
Sushila is among 100 such children who were operated under the Smile Train initiative who will participate in the cultural programme organised on June 23 in Ranchi, as country wide awareness campaign ‘Smile Train Torch’ is set to reach Jharkhand.
Devkamal Hospital and Research Centre, in partnership with Smile Train, has been providing free of cost surgeries to children with cleft for 14 years and till date around 11,000 success surgeries have been conducted.
Renowned plastic surgeon and CEO of Devkamal Hospital, Dr. Anant Sinha, on Wednesday, said, “As a part of celebrating its 20th anniversary, Smile Train has started a national campaign with Smile Torch which will be in Jharkhand on June 23 and 24. On the occasion, a small programme will be organised in the city in which children who have undergone surgery under the Smile Train initiative will perform.”
Dr. Sinha informed that programme director of Smile Train, Leela Imam has requested that the performance is done by children, especially girls, who have undergone the surgery.
“Initially, when we started operating under smile train, there were almost no cases of girl child as girls born with such deformities were considered a burden and became subject to infanticide. However, over the years we have seen a rise in awareness and now the grandparents of such girls come to us to get them operated,” he said.
Two programmes will be organised as the Smile Torch reaches Ranchi.
In the first programme, the children will get to meet the Governor and see the famous gardens of Raj bhavan.
In the second programme organised in evening, the children will be meeting Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Khunti MP, Arjun Munda.
“We are also planning to take the children to airport and show them planes as some of these children come from such rural areas that they have not even seen fans,” Dr. Sinha said.
He added, “We are also inviting around a dozen of such bureaucrats of Jharkhand who have helped us with the operations under Smile Train.”