A baby in southwest China's Guizhou province Thursday became the province's first beneficiary of the US-based "Smile Train" medical mission, which provides free surgery to children with cleft lips and palates.
Fei Jun, a 19-month-old boy, underwent the operation on his lips and palate in a local hospital Thursday.
Cheng Meili, vice-director of the Civil Affairs Department of the Guizhou Provincial government, said the operation represents the beginning of the "Smile Train" mission in the poor province.
The "Smile Train" project is a US-based, non-profit organization with the goal of eradicating the cleft lips and palates problem worldwide. Its major sponsors are Charles B. Wang, CEO and board chairman of Computer Associates International, Inc., and Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Co.
The vice-director said 3,600 people in the province have registered as having cleft lip and palate problems, most of them living in remote mountainous areas.
Over 10,000 Chinese who have these conditions have received the surgery thanks to the project.
The project offered similar service in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region early this year, in cooperation with the China Charity Foundation.
(People's Daily 09/14/2001)
