From Calculus to Clefts: Belmont Hill Students Climb Onboard Smile Train
Classroom Walls Extended As Students Embark on Trip to India
New York, NY — When Brian Mullaney, Co-Founder and President of Smile Train, visited Belmont Hill last fall, he talked to the students there about the rewards of giving back to the community. He has first-hand experience — Smile Train helps thousands of children every year receive free cleft lip and palate surgery that they otherwise never would have received. He also has a special connection to the school. As a Belmont Hill alumnus, he recalled sitting in the very same seats as the boys he was speaking to and remembered how it felt to be a student there.
Last year, the organization defied the odds and won an Oscar with the film Smile Pinki, which documents one poor little girl’s journey as she received a free Smile Train surgery in the holy city of Varanasi, India. Mullaney told the students how thrilling it was for the organization to know that because of the publicity and awareness generated from the film, thousands more children like Pinki would be helped.
He never dreamed that the students that he spoke to would soon be embarking on a journey so similar to his own; on Sunday, March 14, fifteen students from Belmont Hill will be traveling to that very same hospital that Pinki received her surgery to roll up their sleeves and volunteer their time – and learn more about giving back in the process.
“I’m thrilled that the students took my message to heart,” Mullaney said. “Traveling to India and witnessing the lives that are changed there on a daily basis will be an experience that they remember forever. I am so happy to be a part of their journey – and who knows, perhaps one day one of them will start their own non-profit organization and continue to give back.”
The students will be traveling with three faculty members to India and staying for ten days. While in Varanasi, students will learn about and support the work at three different Smile Train hospitals located in Varanasi: G.S. Memorial Hospital, Smile Train’s largest facility; Opal Hospital and Heritage Hospital. While volunteering at these hospitals, they will be observ¬ing doctors, visiting families, helping register new patients, and doing a range projects in and around the facilities. There will also be time for cultural exploration in Varanasi, an ancient city along the Ganges and an important city in Hinduism, as well as visits to several Gandhi sites, the Taj Mahal and Red Fort.
Smile Train currently has 165 Smile Train partner hospitals in India and has performed 200,000 surgeries there. However, the need is great: in India alone, over one million children await surgery and currently only 50% of children born with cleft in India ever get the care they so desperately need. Smile Train’s reach extends beyond India, with 1100 partner hospitals worldwide working to tackle the daunting backlog of millions of children living with unrepaired clefts.
The trip has already inspired the boys to begin giving back. In anticipation of their journey, the boys have already begun organizing their own fundraiser for Smile Train.
"We could not be more excited to be working with Smile Train. Part of the school's mission is to foster global awareness and responsibility in our students. With his presentation last year, Brian has already moved us forward, serving as a particularly powerful model of global citizenship,” said Chris Kolovos, Director of Global Education at Belmont Hill School. “Our hope is that the boys going on this trip will not only leave with an appreciation of India and the importance of service, but also be inspired to share that learning with the school community and carry it with them well after graduation."
ABOUT SMILE TRAIN
Smile Train is the world's leading cleft charity with thousands of partners and programs in 78 of the world's poorest countries. Our mission is to help the millions of children in developing countries who are suffering with unrepaired clefts. We provide free cleft surgery to children from desperately poor families, giving them not just a new smile, but a new life. Now in its tenth year, Smile Train has helped hundreds of thousands of children.
