The made in India documentary ‘Smile Pinki’ won an Oscar in the ‘Best Short Documentary’ category at the 81st Academy Awards. This 39 minutes documentary directed by American director Megan Mylan, tells the real-world fairy tale of one young girl with a lip deformity from Dabai village of Uttar Pradesh. Pinki Kumari is a six-year old girl, lives with a severe cleft lip in this obscure village of Uttar Pradesh. She was not allowed to attend the school and ostracized because of her deformity. The simple surgery that can cure her was a distant dream until her parents meet Pankaj, a social worker traveling village to village gathering patients for a hospital that provides free surgery to thousands each year through ‘The Smile Train’ program. The surgery was performed by plastic surgeon Dr Subodh Kumar Singh, who along with Pinki attended the Academy Award ceremony. In the 39-minute documentary, this girl undergoes corrective surgery and gets a normal childhood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CamEXQ8x72c According to Smile train more than 4.7 million children in developing countries suffer with cleft lip. Over the past 10 years, Smile Train has provided free cleft surgery for hundreds of thousands of children who would otherwise never have received it. The organization is the world’s leading cleft charity with thousands of partners and programs in 76 of the world’s poorest countries. http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer This Oscar will definitely create tremendous awareness about cleft lip, how it can be fixed and also brings donations for this great cause. Hats off to ‘Smile Train’ for the fantastic work. Thanks to ‘Smile Pinki’ team and the Academy. ***** Thanks, Ravindra
