A small help can bring Big Smile to someone's life forever

In a small village, a child was born with a cleft lip and palate. Instead of joy, the family was met with fear and whispers. People said it was a bad omen. Some called it punishment. Others told the mother to hide the child from society. What should have been a moment of celebration slowly turned into isolation, shame, and silence.

Across many parts of our country, children born with cleft conditions are still bullied, excluded, and misunderstood. They are mocked for the way they look, the way they speak, or the way they eat. Families are often made to believe that this condition is superstitious, irreversible, or untreatable. Mothers are blamed. Fathers lose hope. Children grow up thinking something is “wrong” with them.

But the truth is simple and powerful: cleft is not a curse, not a sin, and not fate.

It is a medical condition, and it is treatable.

For many children, the real struggle is not the cleft itself, but the lack of awareness. In remote villages, families do not know that treatment exists. They do not know where to go or whom to trust. As a result, children are hidden from public spaces, kept out of schools, and denied the confidence every child deserves.

This is where EBMA Foundation steps in.

For over a decade, EBMA Foundation has been working quietly and consistently to ensure that children born with cleft lip and palate are not left behind. The journey began with a simple belief: no child should suffer for something that can be healed. What started as concern turned into commitment, and that commitment turned into action.

EBMA Foundation works deep within communities, reaching places where information rarely arrives. Through ASHA and Anganwadi workers, families are informed that cleft conditions can be treated and that help is available. These conversations often become the first ray of hope for parents who had lost all faith.

The foundation partners with trusted healthcare institutions and international organisations, ensuring that children receive safe surgeries, ethical care, and proper medical attention. But the work does not end after surgery. Children are supported with speech therapy, follow-up care, and long-term monitoring, because healing is not just physical; it is emotional and social too.

Today, the EBMA Foundation operates across multiple states, reaching children from underserved regions who would otherwise never receive care. Each child is not treated as a case but as a life that deserves dignity, confidence, and acceptance.

Yet, the reality remains painful. For every child who receives treatment, many more are still waiting. Waiting for awareness. Waiting for acceptance. Waiting for someone to tell their family, “This can be fixed. Your child deserves a future.”

This campaign is not just about treatment.

It is about breaking myths.

It is about ending bullying.

It is about replacing superstition with science and compassion.

It is about telling every parent that their child is not broken.

It is about telling every child that their smile matters.

When awareness spreads, lives change. When stigma fades, confidence grows. And when society chooses understanding over judgement, children are finally free to smile without fear.

This is the work the EBMA Foundation stands for: healing children, educating communities, and changing mindsets.

Will you be that someone today?

Reza Zakaria

Secretary | Cleft Care Advocate

EBMA Foundation