A new smile from loose change for cleft lip children

Eunice Chivers, sponsorship and fundraising manager for the Ruel Foundation, which offers free surgery to those born with cleft lip and palate in the Philippines and Fiji. Photo/supplied

The Ruel Foundation, also known as Give a Smile, has donation boxes throughout the Bay of Plenty.

"Loose change counts," says Tauranga woman Eunice Chivers, who first started volunteering 10 years ago and has now taken up the role of sponsorship and fundraising manager. "It is not just a box on the counter-all that loose change is making a difference. For $250 we can offer life-changing surgery."

The non-government-organisation, which offers free surgery to those born with cleft lip and palate in the Philippines and Fiji, was started by Tauranga man David Cowie in 1999.

While visiting a local hospital in Eastern Samar in the Philippines he came across a small emaciated boy named Ruel, whose face was scarred by a double cleft lip and palate. With no roof to the top of his mouth, swallowing was difficult and Ruel was dying from starvation.

Since then the charity has grown from an outreach centre to become an international organisation based in the Philippines, where it now operates a crisis shelter. Ruel House helps severely malnourished children needing emergency medical care, and unwanted children waiting to be placed in homes.

Eunice has just flown out to the Philippines for the 10th anniversary of crisis centre's opening. She says in New Zealand cleft lip and palate can be diagnosed before birth at 20 weeks, sometimes earlier. This allows mothers to be adequately informed and prepared before the baby is born, including familiarising themselves with surgical and feeding issues.

It is a different story in the Philippines and Fiji, where there is little or no healthcare in some areas. These children can be ostracised because they look different. Operations funded by Give a Smile give these kidsasmile-and a life.

They can eat, swallow, drink, breathe, talk and survive. The surgery allows these kids to have a normal life, life-changing and in a lot of cases, life-saving and gives them hope of an education and future.

"We are only limited by resources, because there are plenty of children that need this surgery," says Eunice. Although the patients are predominantly children Eunice says they have just operated on a 42-year-old woman in the Philippines.

"It has transformed her life. She can now engage with people and for the first time lift her head up and not be looked down upon - it makes an incredible difference to these people. One smile at a time transforms lives."

Go to www.giveasmile.org and www.ruelfoundation.com or www.facebook.com/RuelFoundation