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| Children with cleft palates wait for corrective surgery in Tak’s Mae Sot district. The procedure is offered free to disadvantaged people under Operation Smile Thailand. SUBIN KHEUNKAEW |
TAK : More than 300 mainly Burmese villagers living near the border in Mae Sot district had their smiles fixed yesterday.
They were all afflicted with cleft lips and palates. Volunteer physicians performed life-changing corrective surgery, part of the Operation Smile Thailand project.
Those with the birth defect syndactyly, or webbed fingers, also had their hands operated on by a team of multi-national surgeons who gathered here yesterday.
"They will have a new life and a bright smile. They won't have to live with physical abnormalities anymore," said Busaba Chirathivat, senior vice president of Central Retail Corporation, which finances the project.
She said the project, which has run for four years in Mae Sot district, was aimed at helping needy people in remote areas. Many Burmese villagers entered Thailand yesterday through the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border checkpoint to take advantage of the project.
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