22 November 2009
The donation, which coincided with the duty free industry’s ‘Miles for Smiles’ charity run in Dubai on Sunday, was the largest single donation earmarked for Southeast Asia’s Smile Train since it was established in 1999.
Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, presented the cheque for $1.5 million to Priscilla Ma, Vice-President Marketing, at The Smile Train.
The DDF Foundation, which was established by the airport retailer in October 2004, operates under the auspices of Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Airports with McLoughlin, as the Foundation’s chairman.
Smile Train, which was founded 10 years ago by two friends and business associates, Charles B. Wang and Brian F. Mullaney, focused on the single problem of cleft lip and palate surgery, which affects millions of children in developing countries.
The charity has a global network of thousands of partner hospitals and participating cleft surgeons in 76 of the world’s poorest countries.
The donation by DDF is to be used over a three-year period at two Smile Train partner centres in the Philippines — the Philippine Band of Mercy in Manila and the Maharlika Centre in Davao City, Mindanao. The funds will be used to recruit additional staff, purchase vehicles and equipment, and to perform 3,800 cleft surgeries.
“Since we started our Foundation in October 2004, we have been working with several local and international charities that have specifically helped children. With the appointment of Anne Smith as Manager of Dubai Duty Free’s Corporate Responsibility department last year, we have been able to better identify and study a number of causes that are close to our heart,” McLoughlin, said.
Mullaney said, “Smile Train’s mission is to help millions of children in the world who are walking around with gaping holes in their faces as a result of cleft lips and cleft palates that have never been repaired. Cleft surgery is relatively simple and takes as little as 45 minutes and costs as little as $250. The reason these children have not been helped is because they are poor.”
“We are extremely grateful to the Dubai Duty Free Foundation for such a significant contribution and we look forward to working with them to roll out the three year programme which will ultimately change the lives and fortunes of thousands of children in the Philippines.”
Smile Train estimates that approximately 4,400 children are born with cleft lip and palate deformities annually in the Philippines and that there is a backlog of 150,000 untreated clefts.
Smile Train provides free cleft surgery to children from poor families that give children not just a new smile, but a new life.
Now in its 10th year, Smile Train has helped over 550,000 children.
