UNM students are aligning with a national organization to correct a minor deformity that plagues children worldwide.
Students organized the UNM chapter of Operation Smile, a national non-profit organization that helps kids with cleft palates and lips get corrective surgery.
Sara Kirkpatrick, founder of UNM’s Operation Smile, said the UNM group started in October and already has at least 30 members.
Children with cleft palates or lips often have holes in the roof of their mouths because the bones don’t fuse correctly, Kirkpatrick said.
UNM Operation Smile member Megan Lloyd said complications from cleft lips and palates can be fatal. According to the Operation Smile Web site, this problem is widespread in developing countries because many pregnant women suffer from malnutrition or illness. This, in turn, causes malnutrition in infants.
“When a child is a newborn and they’re nursing, they’re not able to latch on or suck on anything, so they’re not able to get the nourishment they need to survive,”
Kirkpatrick said. “Oftentimes they die just because they can’t get that medical care.”
Kirkpatrick said corrective surgery only costs $240 and takes 40 minutes. Teams of doctors, nurses and anesthesiologists volunteer to travel to developing countries where the surgeries are most needed, she said.
The UNM Operation Smile group hopes to raise at least $1,000 this year and send UNM students on an Operation Smile mission in the future.
“It’s something that doesn’t seem like a big deal to a lot of people because we don’t really see that kind of deformity here,” Kirkpatrick said. “This way, they can have a normal childhood where before they didn’t have much hope for that.”
Student John Dominguez, member of UNM’s Operation Smile, said the group is hosting an event called “What Makes Me Smile” on Wednesday in Smith Plaza.
He said the group will provide paper for students to write down things that make them smile. Group members will take pictures of students holding their paper and then make the pictures into a banner to hang in the SUB.
Lloyd said the event will raise awareness about this issue and get information on Operation Smile out to the UNM community.
“College students definitely have an interest in helping people by doing community service and getting involved,” she said. “Operation Smile is such an accessible thing. Just raising awareness and doing simple fundraisers can add up and really affect people globally.”
Kirkpatrick said students can also get information on the Operation Smile campaign at Wednesday’s event.
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“I thought it would be really cool to start a branch on campus because it’s a really neat organization. I think it would be really great if everyone knew about it,” she said. “We can help out a lot of people.”
*“What Makes Me Smile”
Wednesday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Smith Plaza*
