By the end of March this year, the "Smile Train," an American charity program, had devoted US$40 million to treatment of 106,000 Chinese children born with cleft lips and palates. Thanks to this treatment, these children have started their new life, said Shell Xue, chief project officer for the "Smile Train" program in China on Thursday.

She disclosed the figure at the Fifth Smile Train Seminar on Treating Cleft Lips and Palates held in Haikou, southern China's Hainan Province.

In March 1993, her company, the Smile Train Inc. worked with the China Charity Federation (CCF) to kick off the program in over 30 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. They selected 154 hospitals in China to set up a medical aid network to perform surgeries for poor children born with cleft lips and palates.

Statistics show that in China, the incidence of cleft lips and palates is 0.16%. In China, about 25,000 children are born with cleft lips and palates every year.

Ms Shell Xue hoped that in China, people from all walks of life could work together to help children with cleft lips and palates. She also hoped that more poor children from poor families in China would know the program and receive treatment from their program.

(Chinanews.cn April 23, 2007)