Smile though your heart is aching

We often hear of the many wonderful acts of charity of a particular person, but we don’t realize the greatness of her work until we come face to face with the people whose lives she has touched.

Such was my experience on a recent trip to Cebu when my friends Jojo Zabarte, Yue Sai Kan and I received an invitation to the Operation Smile dinner hosted by popular Cebu couple, philanthropists Mariquita and Carlos Yeung. Operation Smile International (OSI) is an organization whose main concern is to extend help to the unfortunate victims of harelip and cleft-palate conditions. The organization is funded by generous donors but the doctors give their services for free. For a minimal amount of P5,000, each child can avail of surgery.

In 1998, overwhelmed by the many cases of cleft palate and harelip that she saw in Cebu, Kit Yeung asked OSI if she could put up her own Operation Smile Philippine Foundation in Cebu. Since then, Operation Smile has become a yearly project for the Yeungs. Kit and husband Carlos built 10 health centers all around Cebu for the benefit of the region’s unfortunate harelip and cleft-palate victims.

It was a very heartwarming event, but we did not quite expect to see what we saw. On the huge TV screen unfolded the many cases of harelip and cleft palate, from the mildest case to the most severe. I never imagined that a harelip or cleft palate could deform a face so badly. And strangely enough, they afflict the poorest of the poor.

During the program that followed the dinner, Monette Alino, who is the president of Kit’s Mariquita Salimbangon Charitable Foundation, introduced some of the children who have benefited from the program in the past and who are fully recovered. The children went up onstage and sang a tribute to the doctors and volunteers. Then Mrs. Alino called on a pretty teenager, Chadleen Ladoo, who, prior to her operation, could not even talk because of her cleft palate. When she learned how to talk after her operation, she studied singing, joined a singing contest and won. There was not a dry eye in the audience when she rendered her signature song, Smile. Through our tears, we all hummed the familiar tune with her, and gave her a standing ovation.

Monette explained that this year, there were 900 applicants and only 300 could be operated on by the selfless doctors who gave their services free for one week. The doctors came from the USA, Australia, China, UK, Brazil, South Africa and the Philippines. They were pediatricians, anesthesiologists, cosmetic surgeons and general practitioners. Governor Gwen Garcia was all praise for the generosity of Kit and Carlos for funding these missions. The evening was not complete without all the doctors taking a bow on stage. Kit acknowledged and thanked each one of them and in her speech, thanked our Lord for the many blessings in her life, foremost of which is the loving support of her husband, family and numerous friends who have helped in the success of the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation Inc.

The next day, to cap the weeklong event, Kit and Carlos hosted a formal dinner party in their magnificent villa on top of a hill, which also celebrated Kit’s birthday. Husband Carlos and son Martin made sure that the event would be nothing short of spectacular! An outpouring of loving birthday wishes for Kit followed after the sumptous dinner. Kit’s many friends say that she is an inspiration to many. Her life is a continuous journey of service and love to the less fortunate. Vice mayor Rama of Cebu, the local and foreign doctors, and Kit’s brother Ben Hur Salimbamgon, honored Kit with romantic songs. A quartet provided dance music. Kit and Carlos started the first dance, and everyone trooped to the dance floor and danced the night away. At 3 a.m., the caterers were bringing in congee for the famished dancers. It was dawn when we bid our hosts goodbye, so tired and barely realizing that we had only an hour to sleep if we wanted to catch our early flight to Manila.