Driven by smiles

Happy smiles are back on the faces of these children who are beneficiaries of Smile Train, a charity pledging to repair cleft lip and palate for poor children in developing countries.

"It pierced my heart that my son could not smile like other babies," says Dorje. "I couldn't take him out to play, or to religious ceremonies for blessing. I don't want my boy to be judged, and others to stare at him and make me feel ashamed."

Dorje decided to cure the boy at all cost. Living in the remote area of Dzachuka in the southeast of Qing-hai-Tibet Plateau in Sichuan province, the family makes a meager income, and Dorje borrowed about 20,000 yuan to seek medical help in the nearest big city, Chengdu.

The city is 1,070 kilometers away.

A trip between the two places usually takes three days and two nights, and costs about 3,000 yuan, which is almost a year's income for residents in Dzachuka.

The father and son arrived in Chengdu only to find that they didn't understand Mandarin, and knew no one to turn to.

Wandering in the city for days, they failed to find a hospital that would take such a young boy in. Soon they had spent all the money they brought along.

Back home, the family had no other way to make money to satisfy creditors, and they even started to dig caterpillar fungus in mountains where Living Buddha had warned them not to climb in fear of offending the god.

But the caterpillar fungus didn't sell well, and they were trapped in debt. The turning point came when two young women they didn't know visited Dorje's home, saying they could help the boy.

The surprise visitors were sisters. The older one was Traga Lhamo, and the younger one was Yeshe Lhamo, who both work in the county government. They had enabled another family in Dzachuka to travel to Chengdu for free surgery funded by Smile Train. Now, they were eager to help as many children as they could.

People living in Dzachuka make a living by pasturing in the vast grassland, and the sisters visited one tent after another to look for families that need help.