Operation Smile at Boston University has teamed up with several a cappella groups for “Songs for Smiles,” a concert to help raise awareness about cleft lips and palates and the importance of safe surgery in countries that do not benefit from health care resources, an event that Operation Smile at BU hopes to bring back to campus every year.
“A few years ago, we started thinking about Songs for Smiles as a large event we could host that would both raise funds for Operation Smile but also raise awareness in the BU community,” said Rachael Edelson, president of Operation Smile at BU and a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “It took a few semesters, but last fall, we held the first Songs for Smiles a cappella concert, and it was a huge success.”
Friday will be the second Songs for Smiles concert hosted by Operation Smile and Terpsichore, an all-female BU a cappella group. The other groups performing include the Vanderbilt Melodores from Vanderbilt University, The CharlieChords from Berklee College of Music and BU groups Mustard Seed, The BosTones, the BU Sweethearts and The Treblemakers.
“We really like to cater the songs we sing to the type of event we’re doing performing at, so for an event like this, we make sure to choose songs that are of a happy, or smiling, nature,” said Tamara Boyle, president of the BU Treblemakers and a junior in the College of Communication.
Boyle said the group picks out a set of songs at least a week in advance of an event and then spends one or two three-hour rehearsals practicing only those songs.
“We love being able to perform at events that give back,” Boyle said. “To be able to perform at an event that gives back to an organization that provides such joy in giving people the ability to show off their smile to the world is really wonderful.”
Operation Smile is a global charity established in 1982 with a mission to assist those afflicted with cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformities living in resource-poor environments where health care is a rarity. According to Operation Smile’s website, a child with a cleft is born every three minutes.
“While we may not see the effects of cleft lip and cleft palate in the United States as much, it is not because it is not occurring, but instead that we often have great access to health care,” said Brooke Wayne, vice president of Operation Smile at BU and a junior in the Sargent College. “In many undeveloped nations, this is not the case, and people truly suffer because of that.”
That’s why Operation Smile makes it its mission to help out those with birth defects in poor countries. According to their website, they believe “that all children deserve to live their lives with dignity” and “for those suffering from cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformities, dignity begins with a smile.”
“Operation Smile is a pioneer in advocating for the importance of safe surgery in resource-poor environments,” Edelson said. “It is the largest surgical charity of its kind, leading research into the causes of cleft lip and cleft palate and its prevention, treatment and eradication.”
Edelson said she started working with Operation Smile in 2006, when she learned about the organization at her high school, and she has been involved ever since. Her first mission trip was to Bolivia in 2010. It was there that she first realized the immense “global health care gap that I had read about and learned about, but didn’t realize firsthand.”
“The mission was absolutely life changing,” she said. “I met a patient named Carlos who was in his 40s and seeing a doctor for the first time.”
After this mission, not only did Edelson’s passion for Operation Smile grow, but so did her passion for international health, she said.
“Operation Smile has continued to transform my life, and I was able to attend a mission in Bhubaneswar, India,” Edelson said. “It has been amazing to be part of the growth of Operation Smile at Boston University. Multiple students have attended international missions and have been impacted greatly.”
Edelson said her inspiration to join Operation Smile and stay involved with the charity for so many years has been because “no one should have to be discriminated against for being born with a cleft lip.”
“No one should have to live with shame or guilt solely because they do not have access to safe reconstructive surgeries,” she said.
Wayne said she was inspired to join Operation Smile at BU because she was born with a cleft lip.
“I wanted to join because of my personal connection to the organization’s mission,” she said. “I felt I could lend a hand to the cause by bringing in my personal perspectives on the issues and knew that I wanted to help other children who do not have the same access to the outstanding health care that I have been fortunate enough to receive.”
Wayne’s last medical mission trip consisted of a 10-day stay in Chiapas, Mexico in March, where she worked as a photojournalist and documented the stories of patients, their families and other volunteers for the official Operation Smile webpage.
During the trips, the medical mission starts with a three-day screening process where pediatricians, dentists, anesthesiologists, nurses, speech pathologists and medical records volunteers meet with potential patients and their families to get a full picture of an individual’s medical background and to determine whether or not it’s safe for the individual to undergo surgery, Wayne said.
“After the initial screenings, there is a week-long timeframe where surgeries are performed,” she said. “These surgeries are often life-saving. Children born with cleft lips or cleft palates have severe issues in their lives if surgery is not performed at a young age.”
Wayne said cleft lip or cleft palate problems often hamper nutrition because the deformity makes swallowing difficult. Those afflicted can face verbal or physical abuse because of the way they look or sound. Education may suffer because “many are not allowed to leave the home or attend school because they are considered ‘monsters’ by their families.”
But the volunteers, as well as the patients undergoing the surgeries, are a source of inspiration for Wayne, she said.
“I have learned that there are truly good, wholesome and honest people in this world who make it their personal mission to make others happy to no benefit of their own,” she said. “Everyone on the mission becomes like a family by the end of the short time spent together, and the individuals that receive these life-changing surgeries are forever better because of it.”
The Songs for Smiles concert is on Friday at 7 p.m. in the College of Arts and Sciences in the Stone Science Building in Room B50. Although the event is free, donations are welcome.
