Bangladeshi children, the gratitude of their parents and carers and the generosity, support and friendship of the local hospital staff.
 
Bangladeshi people are poor yet giving; tough yet kind; long travelled but sit patiently for days for their surgery; hard to understand yet inclusive and polite.
 
I feel privileged to be among these sweet souls, these poor, generous and hard working people.
 
Thanks again to Hasan, Barbara, Rotary, Impact teams and 2012 team mates Judy, Annie, Pia, Linda, Kim, Steve, Erika, Grace, Francesca. I feel I have lived.

After almost five years of gradual improvement and refinement, the project is now quite stable and sustainable with continuing support from the Australian community. There is no shortage of medically skilled volunteers to work in Bangladesh or of non-medical volunteers to support the project both in Australia and in Bangladesh.

My role is to support the project here in Australia with voluntary financial, technical, and management services. Currently my main contributions are to maintain this website, produce six-monthly financial statements, and provide technical support for presentations and fundraising activities – especially the Trivia Nights. In fact, like other family and friends of team members, I find myself doing all sorts of little things to support the teams from writing articles to humping boxes of medical supplies around. Perhaps the project’s other non-medical volunteers can relate when I say that much of this back-room work can be invisible, tedious, time-consuming, frustrating, and very remote from the action in Bangladesh – but it’s worth it.

I know it’s worth it when each team returns with photos of scores of parents and carers queued up waiting for their child’s pre-op check with a mixture of apprehension and hope in their eyes. They must be uncertain of the outcome but prepared to gamble for a better life for their child. They probably don’t know that, mostly due to the skills of the anaesthetists and anaesthetic and recovery nurses, all of the teams’ patients have survived their surgery with positive outcomes. They probably don’t know that mostly because of the skills of the scrub and scout nurses, the teams have not had a single instance of post-op infection. They may only know that, because of the skills of the surgeons, many children with gross cleft lips and palates have emerged from their operations with beautiful new smiles.

 
   
Mostly I know it’s worth it when I see photos of parents after their child’s surgery. Often the children are upset and not smiling yet at all. They do not understand what has happened, but their parents’ smiles are filled with relief and joy. Even though the stitches are still visible and their child’s lips are swollen around a fresh wound, they can see an immediate improvement. They realise that the swelling will soon disappear, as will the stitches and the wound, leaving their child more beautiful than before and prepared for a much brighter future. Even the team members in Bangladesh rarely get to see what their fully recovered patients look like – so perhaps that is a bit frustrating for them too.
 

It is absolutely worth it to know that hundreds of people’s future prospects have been so radically improved – even if you are not directly involved in the process or if you don’t get to see the final outcome.

Cliff Mitchell

Just after being born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, baby Marium, perhaps only a day old, was abandoned on a public bus. She was discovered by some passengers, and then the police placed her in an orphanage in Myamanshingh, Bangladesh. The orphanage has been run for the past 56 years by Rev. Eugene Homrich, a Holy Cross Priest from the USA. The orphanage also has a small clinic in a village for childbirth and snake bites, and as a safe hideout for pregnant girls, muslim, hindu, and tribal.

A good friend of Dr Hasan Sarwar, Dr Shah Alam Talukder, a paediatric Surgeon in Myamansingh Medical College Hospital who works voluntarily for this orphanage, brought Marium to the Aussi Bangla Smile team at the  Jibon Tari floating Hospital which was then about two hours travel from the orphanage.

At the time of her operation, Marium was nearly five months old. Due to her deformity, she was unable to eat properly. She was anaemic, malnourished, and weighed only 4kg. These factors placed Marium at risk from anaesthesia, however without surgery her condition would not have improved. Aussi Bangla Smile team anaesthetists, Dr Erika Agius and Dr Steve Cooper, made special preparations. The operation was performed by Dr Sarwar. Post-operative recovery was uneventful, and the next morning Marium looked very happy and began smiling which captured everyone’s hearts.

Marium will require further surgery to repair her cleft palate and this is planned for the next Aussi Bangla Smile team’s visit.

Team Leader Judy Barlow and the rest of the team were so moved that they decided to sponsor Marium up to the age of 10. Ten team members immediately donated AU$360 (27,720 Taka) for one year’s expenditure on milk and other needs. Rev. Homrich was very happy to hear that the Aussi Bangla Smile team members have sponsored Marium. He wrote:

“She looks beautiful after repairs and I will have her adopted in a Muslim family when her palate is repaired. Many thanks for taking care of Marium.  A good Garo family took her to Birishiri yesterday,. I’ll have her adopted legally when she is older. She is very intelligent. The family is childless and will do a good job raising the child. I gave her Tk.10,000 for milk and will give the balance when I get it.  We get pregnant, unmarried girls in our little Bethany Clinic here and we give the babies according to the religion of the mother thru the Courts. I’ll send the baby for repairs next year. This is a beautiful project…please thank all for their help…Sincerely, Rev. Eugene E. Homrich, CSC”

The 2011 team performed a total of 115 operations bringing the grand total for Aussi Bangla Smile to 421 so far. Each of these cases has its own story, Marium’s is just one full of pathos and joy and hope for the future.

Thank you for all your support without which we could not do this work.

Hasan Sarwar

“I am ecstatic and extremely grateful to Aussi Bangla Smile team and Dr Hasan!”

He was so happy with the surgery, he came back and he brought his second and youngest daughter Shompa Rani, 20 years old, with incomplete cleft lip, confident that she can have high quality surgery for her condition:

Before Surgery                                                                        After Surgery!!!

Father and Daughter went back home both with beautiful smiles on their faces….

Two lives changed, for the best!!!

Submitted by Dr Grace Maano