Cleft-lip girl to be able to smile again

The life of a 12-year-old cleft-lip girl in Jharkhand will change from Thursday because she will be able to smile again.
    
"I have operated on the girl and corrected her lips. Now she can smile like a normal person," Dr Anant Sinha a noted plastic and reconstructive surgeon of Dev Kamal Hospital said here, adding that he had ordered a CD of the Oscar-winning documentary Smile Pinki for her.
    
Also to be able to smile again would be four-year-old Vijay Prasad and 5-month-old Jeet Pandey, both from an economically underprivileged background, who would undergo surgery shortly.
    
"Both of them will be smiling from tomorrow,"Sinha said.

"There are about 9000 cleft-lip persons in Ranchi. And, I hope Smile Pinki will inspire others to rectify their defect," he said.

"I was very happy after watching Smile Pinki in November last year. So my happiness knew no bounds when it won the Oscar," Sinha said.
    
Normally, the operation costs between Rs 15,000 and 20,000 in Ranchi, but a US-based NGO 'Smile Train' has been footing the bills for the cleft-lip operations.