Smile Week commenced on Monday, 05 September 2022, as part of the Smile Foundation’s purpose to give every child who was born with a facial anomaly - or suffered disfiguring burn wounds - a second chance at having a smile-filled childhood.

The spokesperson responsible for the Free State department of health, Mondli Mvambi says the 21 surgeries that were done include the repair of 14 cleft palates, four cleft lips, two burn reconstruction surgeries and one nasal reconstruction surgery.

“We started the week with how they were and we end the week with how they will be into the future,” he adds.

The CEO of Smile Foundation, Kim Robertson Smith, expressed her gratitude to the anonymous donor that made it possible for the children to get their smiles back.  

“We are very grateful and wish to thank the anonymous donor for their overwhelming generosity and the incredible support of our initiative, as well as the selfless team of dedicated surgeons, medical professionals and hospital staff of Universitas Academic Hospital, who are dedicating their time, talent and efforts to give these children the life-changing surgery they so desperately need.”

Three of these children are Ryan, Molahloe, and Nthabiseng. Ryan is explained to have suffered severe burn injuries that were caused by a paraffin stove accident. After the accident he was taken to a nearby hospital that afternoon, where dressings were applied to his wounds much later that evening.

Ten days later, his burn wounds turned septic. Now, during Smile Week, he underwent contracture release surgery, - however he needs occupational therapy sessions to help improve his mobility and gain his lost muscle tone.

Molahloe and Nthabiseng, are two young children who had similar cleft conditions - Molahloe 21-month old boy, Nthabiseng a 3-year old girl. Molahloe had a bilateral cleft lip repair surgery and Nthabiseng underwent a surgery for a complete cleft lip repair.

Before the surgeries, they were both healthy children who were able to eat and drink properly and are at a healthy weight, despite the severity of their conditions – however, they have both been waiting to undergo the surgery, and this will improve their speech.

“A delay in surgery in cases like these, is often what affects speech development, as these kinds of operations are normally performed at 3 months. Over and above living in extreme rural conditions and being isolated from society without any medical support or transport, families like these face a great poverty challenge, living from day to day on very little.”

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