VietNamNet Bridge – The image of a cleft palate boy who “missed out” during a charity surgery program but still ran after international doctors to say goodbye had haunted doctors for 15 years. Back in Vietnam, they searched everywhere to return a "smile" to the boy of the old day.

In 1995, an international charity group specialized in palate surgery went to former Bac Thai province (now Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan provicnes) to give free medical treatment for local children.

After their mission completed, doctors were leaving the province and suddenly they saw a boy with cleft lip running after their car to wave goodbye to them.

The boy was Hoang Nghia Quang, a patient on the surgery list. Quang came from a very poor family and was suggested by the local government for free surgery.

Mr. Brian Mullaney, a member of the charity surgery team recalled: "I recognized that boy immediately because during our time in that province, we usually played football with Quang and called him "Soccer Boy." But Quang “missed out” and we only found out when we were going to leave Vietnam."

What haunted  Brian and the members of the charity surgery team was that though he missed out, the boy still ran after to wave goodbye to international doctors. The boy was imbued with innocence and hope.

"This urged us to return to Vietnam early to find the boy to give him a surgery," Brian said.

In 2008 (13 years later), when the representative office of the Smile Train organization in Vietnam was established, the search for the boy began. The only clue was a picture of Brian Mullaney and Quang taken at the former Bac Thai Hospital.

Brian looked for the boy for months but the hospital did not obtain medical records of the children involved in the surgery in 1995, so they did not have any information.

Then, Smile Train posted advertisements on a local newspaper and send letters to all People's Committees of communes, wards in the provinces of Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan to ask for help. Shortly after, the two boys with similar characteristics as the "Soccer Boy" were reported. However, they were not the person that Smile Train was looking for. The surgeries for these persons were still performed.

Smile Train continued to search for the boy in the past by sending letters to schools, from kindergartens to universities in Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan provinces to ask for information. However, this method proved to be not very good and all efforts seemed to go into a dead end.

Incidentally, in July 2010, good news came to the Smile Train when a local resident said that he is the neighbor of the “Soccer Boy.” He accidentally saw a picture of Hoang Nghia Quang at the Thai Nguyen Medical University, while he took his son to a university entrance exam there.

Smile Train staff rushed to the village of Binh Son in Thai Nguyen province to meet Quang. At that time Quang was a tall young man, different from the "Soccer Boy" of the old day. The meeting really moved Quang and his family.



All four young people, including Quang and the three people who Smile Train confused as being Quang before--had been operated on before they were founded by this organization. However, being born with a cleft lip, severe and persistent psychological wounds were left with them. All of them expressed low self-esteem and social communication problems.

To help them have the opportunity to practice and recovery psychologically and build confidence in life, in May 2011, Smile Train invited to Quang and the three others to join a special project, in which they are tasked to find and help other families with children with cleft lip palate in Thai Nguyen and Bac Kan provinces.

Sharing this story, Mr. Nguyen Tri Dung, Director of Smile Train program in Vietnam said: "Always, kindness of all men always do wonderful things." Currently, Smile Train has performed 6,332 surgeries for poor children in Vietnam, and 786,981 cases worldwide.

Smile Train is working with organizations and individuals to develop a charity fund to help more poor children with cleft palate in the world, including Vietnam.

Recently, the organization has partnered with Vertu to unveil the first charity phone in the world - Vertu Constellation Smile. For each Vertu Constellation Smile is sold, Eur200 euros – enough for a surgery - will be presented to poor children with cleft palate through the Smile Train fund.

Translated by P. Lan