According to Hedley Lewis, executive director of finances and fundraising at the Smile Foundation, "This is the first, but certainly not the last, visit to George. The distance to the Red Cross Hospital and the lack of support for the family in Cape Town puts a massive strain on them. The Smile Foundation will make an annual visit to George from now on."
The Smile Foundation is a South African NGO that assists children with any type of facial anomalies such as Cleft Lip and Palate, burn victims and Moebius syndrome (facial paralysis) to receive corrective plastic and reconstructive surgery within South Africa.
The foundation was formed in 2000 as The Smile Fund after a personal request from Nelson Mandela to the Lubner family to help him secure surgery for a young child, Thando Manyathi, suffering from a rare medical condition known as Moebius syndrome, causing facial nerve paralysis.
Thando's mother, Thabile Malambo Manyathi, wrote letters to Nelson Mandela on a monthly basis appealing for assistance to help her child go overseas to have a highly specialised procedure known as facial reanimation surgery, which would correct the facial paralysis with which Thando was born. As fate would have it, Thabile's desperate plea found its way into Madiba's personal pile of letters, and without a second thought he made the call.
The Lubner family, inspired by Thando, saw the bigger picture. There was no sustainability in sending one child overseas, so why not bring the skills home?
Dr Ron Zucker and Dr Craig Van Der Kolk were invited to South Africa to transfer the skills of this technique to South Africans.
Surgeon George Psaras, then head of department of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Witwatersrand, was the first surgeon in the country to learn this very specialised skill.
By providing plastic and reconstructive surgery for children living with facial conditions, the Smile Foundation offers a holistic approach.
Lewis said, "Not only do we put a smile on the little patient, we make the whole family smile as we transform the lives of the children who are often ostracised by the community."
The Smile Foundation is the consequence of Nelson Mandela's belief and passion for children in South Africa and worldwide.
Nicole (5), sitting on her mother Jolene Appels's lap, gets a word of encouragement from Hedley Lewis, from the Smile Foundation. Jolene is from New Dawn Park. Nicole had a bilateral constricted ear recovery procedure.
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS: MYRON RABINOWITZ, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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