I want to thank the real heroes of Smile Train and WonderWork: the thousands of surgeons, doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, social workers, administrators and other medical professionals who are on the front lines and make our free surgery programs possible.
Working in the poorest countries in the world, with very few resources, these modern-day good Samaritans are helping children no one else will help. It’s been my privilege to meet and get to know thousands of these folks over the past 25 years and they are the most inspiring, selfless, dedicated, hard-working, compassionate people I have ever met in my life.
I have been very lucky to have had the help and support of exceptional medical advisory boards at both Smile Train and WonderWork. These boards attracted the best and the brightest in their fields and helped us set the highest standards for safety and quality for all of our medical programs.
At both Smile Train and WonderWork, one of the most accomplished, respected and revered plastic surgeons in the world, Dr. Joseph G. McCarthy of New York University Medical Center helped create and led as Chairman both Medical Advisory Boards.
Dr. Eric Hubli helped develop our state-of-the-art quality assurance program at Smile Train. Virtual reality genius and renowned cleft surgeon Dr. Court Cutting of NYU created virtual surgery software and sensational training videos which have been used by more than 100,000 cleft surgeons.
Other Smile Train medical advisory board members who contributed a tremendous amount include: Philip Kuo-Ting Chen, Linda L. D’Antonio, the late David L. Dingman, Alvaro Figueroa, Ethylin Jabs, Ian Jackson, E. Heidi Jerome, Jan Lilja, Samuel Noordhoff, Judy O’Young, Brian Sommerlad, S. Anthony Wolfe, Katherine Garrett, Wang Guomin, Yongzhong, Shi Bing, Fu Yuchuan, Meng Xiang Qin, Huang Jiefu, Yan Mingfu, Zhang Wenkang, Fan Baoyun, Wang Xing, Wang Yu, Ren Minghui, Behman Daver, Mukunda Reddy, Rebecca Jacob and Karoon Agrawal.
WonderWork Medical Advisory Board members include Chairman Joseph G. McCarthy who created and led this board, club foot expert and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Alice Chiu, world renowned burn surgeon Dr. Nicole Gibran, neuroscience and anesthesia expert Adrian Gelb, pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Norman Medow, and MIT lecturer Anjali Sastry.
WonderWork’s best partners:
Chitrakoot Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya (SNC), Location: Chitrakoot, India, Focus: Blindness, Population Served: 35 million, Partner Since: July, 2016, Total Surgeries Supported: 15,900 SNC is one of the busiest eye hospitals in central India providing free cataract surgeries to around 143,000 people every year. It is the only institution in the world with a record of performing over 100,000 surgeries from a single facility for the last four consecutive years and has the capacity to perform more than 500 ophthalmic surgeries each day. Beside lifesaving surgery, SNC offers a post-graduate training and fellowship program for surgeons from India and other countries. Over the years, SNC has been successful in creating access for cataract surgery to poor children and adults at an affordable price. They have achieved national and international recognition for its commitment to service, delivery, modern ophthalmic practices and training for community eye care programs. It is the only tertiary eye hospital within a 300-kilometer radius and serves a population of over 35 million.
Sankara Eye Care (SEC), Location: Uttar Pradesh, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: November 2012. SEC has been operating for 25 years. They have a network of 9 hospitals throughout India with 1,800 combined beds. An accomplished and dedicated staff of 1,100 provide high quality eye surgery for the rural and urban poor. Their outreach program is one of India’s largest; SEC has conducted blindness camps every single week since 1990. SEC’s highly experienced and efficient surgical staff treats around 140,000 children and adults every year.
Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH), Location: Bihar, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: March 2014. Founded in 2005, AJEH is the largest and most effective eye hospital in Bihar working to eradicate blindness in the region. What started with just 20 beds in a Gayatri temple, AJEH now has 350 beds as well as the only fully functional pediatric eye unit in all of Bihar. AJEH is led by Mr. Mritunjay Tiwary, AJEH’s founder and trustee. He has helped develop AJEH’s extensive outreach program that spreads hundreds of miles from the hospital, identifying poor patients who would otherwise never receive the surgery they need. AJEH currently performs 67,000 eye surgeries a year and with WonderWork’s help, they have done over 16,000 incremental eye surgeries.
Sankara Nethralaya, Location: India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: November 2012. Sankara Nethralaya started with a commitment to eradicate blindness. Since then, it has grown into a super specialty institution for ophthalmic care and treats patients from all over the world. Providing more than 30,000 surgeries a year, patient safety is a top priority. Sankara Nethralaya was the first ISO 9002 accredited hospital in Asia and also enjoys NABH accreditation, the highest recognition in the India health care sector. They perform over 10,000 free surgeries to the poor every year.
Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH), Location: Delhi, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: June 2013. SCEH was established in 1914 to reach those who could not afford eye care and is now one of the best eye and ENT specialty hospitals in all of North India. SCEH follows the internationally accepted hub and spoke model for delivery of quality eye and ENT care services. While the hub (the base unit where all the super specialists are present is in Delhi), the spokes (the secondary centers and clinics) are distributed across various district headquarters in the states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. 60% of all the surgeries and procedures SCEH provides are free of cost for poor patients.
Kalinga Eye Hospital, Location: Orissa, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: December 2012. Kalinga Eye Hospital, established in 2002, is located in the central region of Orissa in Dhenkanal, India. Kalinga performs over 6,000 free cataract surgeries each year with a focus on the hardest-to-reach tribal community spread across more than 52 tribal villages. 90% of these patients come from outreach eye-screening camps they hold throughout the year. Kalinga has been awarded the District Award for three consecutive years in recognition of performing a record number of surgeries.
Sitapur Eye Hospital, Location: India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: December 2012. Sitapur Eye Hospital is the oldest eye hospital of Northern India, established in 1927. The hospital has a regional eye institute with branches that spread over 32 cities and towns of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal States. The hospital has 1,000+ beds and more than 1,500 beds amongst the rest of its 32 branches. The hospital is equipped with world-class facilities and instruments and examines more than 400,000 patients annually through organized outreach camps for the poor in various villages. It serves 50,0000+ patients each year.
Siliguri Greater Lion’s Eye Hospital, Location: West Bengal, India Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: May 2014 The hospital was established in 1981 to serve the people located in the Northern-most district of West Bengal. West Bengal is estimated to have the 3rd highest number of people living on less than $1.25/day. For the past 31 years, the hospital has successfully provided quality eye care and restored the sight of tens of thousands blind and visually impaired people. It is a 60-bed center that performs 10,000 eye surgeries per year.
Vivekananda Mission Asram (VMA), Location: West Bengal, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: June, 2013 VMA is a service oriented mission hospital that has served the poorest patients in West Bengal since the early 1990’s. Dr. Asim Kumar Sil and his talented team treat approximately 18,000 patients every year. VMA is one of the few hospitals in the region specializing in pediatric ophthalmology. They also run an Ophthalmic Training Centre, which trains more than 100 students each year.
Lumbini Eye Hospital, Location: Lumbini, Nepal, Focus: Blindness Partner Since: May, 2013. Lumbini Eye Institute (LEI), is one of the leading and most successful eye care centers in Nepal. It is also considered one of the finest examples of self-sustainable eye care facilities in all of South Asia. LEI provides grassroots, primary eye care services, district-level services including outreach surgical camps and tertiary care at its base hospital. This 215-bed base hospital provides up to 170 cataract surgeries daily. In collaboration with other partners, LEI has created a low-cost, high-volume operational structure and currently provides 25% of all sight-restoring surgeries in Nepal.
John Fawcett Foundation, Location: Indonesia, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: December 2012. The John Fawcett Foundation (JFF) began its Sight Restoration and Blindness Prevention Program in 1991 to address the more than 3.5 million people cataract blind out of Indonesia’s 240 million population. Professional eyecare teams use mobile clinics to travel from village to village to screen patients for all eye ailments. All services are provided free of charge and they have performed over 40,000 eye operations.
ICARE Eye Hospital, Location: Noida, India, Focus: Blindness, Partner Since: May 2014. ICARE Eye Hospital was formed in 1993 in Noida, India to serve the urban poor living in the slums of Delhi. Since then, they have established several outreach programs to reach the rural poor in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. Over 1.5 million patients have been screened and about 10,000 free surgeries are performed each year.
CURE International, Location: India, Focus: Clubfoot, Partner Since: September 2012. CURE International serves India with a mission to eradicate clubfoot. Established in 2009, CURE has treated over 24,000 children across 24 states targeting the poorest populations. Currently, they operate 138 clubfoot clinics throughout India, treating 8,000 cases each year. Under the leadership of Dr. Mathew Varghese, one of the top orthopedists in India, over 1,000 clubfoot specialists have been trained. We support clinics in some of the most underserved areas including Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and West Bengal.
Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation (CCBRT), Location: Tanzania, Focus: Clubfoot, Partner Since: October 2014. Set up in 1994, CCBRT has grown to become the largest indigenous provider of disability service in Tanzania, focusing on the issue of cataract blindness, among other disabilities. In a country of 45 million people, it is estimated that 3.5 million live with a disability and are consequently marginalized in society. CCBRT’s Disability Hospital has 200 beds and is committed to serving the poorest of the poor and empowering those with disabilities.
Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children (HRDC), Location: Nepal, Focus: Clubfoot, Partner Since: November, 2012 HRDC began as an idea in 1985, when Dr. Ashok Banskota returned to Nepal after receiving training in the U.S. for Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery and was appalled by the lack of services offered to disabled children. Today, more than 30 years later, HRDC has served over 67,000 children, none of whom have been denied treatment as a result of their inability to pay. By taking preventative, curative, and rehabilitative measures, HRDC provides children with clubfoot the opportunity to live a normal life.
Surgical Volunteers International, Location: Vietnam, Focus: BurnsPartner Since: September 2012. Surgical Volunteers International was established in 2007 to provide surgical care to those in need as well as educational training opportunities for medical and nursing staff. A team of reconstructive surgeons travel throughout the year to visit Cho Ray Hospital in Saigon, Vietnam. The hospital is the largest in South Vietnam with 1,700 beds and 26,000 inpatients. The burn center is always full as they are the main referral center for all surrounding provinces. The team of surgeons conduct burn reconstructive surgeries and assist in training staff to care for acute burn patients.
I have had the privilege of working with some of the most talented, dedicated, selfless surgeons, doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, social workers, other medical professionals and non-governmental organization workers who make our programs possible.
While it is impossible to mention each and every one, I would like to recognize the following doctors and medical professionals and thank them for helping us provide almost two million surgeries.
Dr. RV Ramani, Radhakrishnan Sundar, Mr. Mritunjay Tiwary, Dr. Asish Agarwal, Mr. Swami Biswanathananda, Dr. Asim Sil, Mr. Sarangadhar Samal, Mr. SV Acharya, Mr. Erwin Telemans, Dr. Sonia Vaitha, Ms. Abbey Kocan, Mr. Dale Brantner, Santosh George, Dr. Suma Ganesh, Mr. John Fawcett, Ms. Zahida Ispahani, Mr. Tekchand Pradhan, Dr. Uday R Gajiwala, Ms. Jennifer Staple-Clark, Dr. Sushil Choudhry, Mr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, Dr. Priyanka Sharma, Dr. Mehul Shah, Dr. Krishna Vaitheeswaran, Dr. Mathew Varghese, Ms. Judi Stagg, Dr. Subodh Singh, Dr. Madhu Bhadauria, Rev. Dr. Mathew Abraham, Mr. MK Raju, Father Tomi Thomas, Dr. Jim Gollogly, Dr. SA Patil, Dr. Chandrasekhar Sankurathri, Dr. Vandana Prasad, Dr. V. Suresh, Dr. Kunle Hassan, Mr. Lav Grover, Father Mathew Kayany, Mr. Col G R Prasad, Mr. Lewis Swan, Lion N C Karnany, Mr. Amod Singh, Dr. David Chang, James Muecke, Dr. G Chandra Sekhar, Mr. Andrew Mayo, Dr. Benjamin W. Roberts, Dr. Fabio Abenavoli, Ms. Caroline Harper, Dr. Kapila Edussuriya, Dr. YK Mahendra, Mr. Shri Janiyani, Dr. Harsha Bhattacharjee, Mr. Don Bell, Dr. Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, Dr. RD Thulasirgaj Dr. William Grut, Dr. Kulin Kothari, Dr. Ashok Banskota, Ms. Mary Gladhart, Dr. Asrat Mengiste, Dr. Shankar Rai, Mr. Tom Flood, Dr. Shafiq-ul Islam, Abida Rahman, Mr. Colin Macfarlane, Dr. Shamim Khan, Dr. Abraham Gebreegizabher, Dr. Einar Eriksen, Mr. Jeff Whisenant, Dr. Dan Poenaru, Ricahard Bendell, Mr. Malcom Simpson, Dr. Mekonen Eshete, Mr. Thomas Cook, Dr. Shobha Chamania, Dr. Gennadiy Fuzaylov, Dr. Rajeev Ahuja, Dr. Nous Sarom, Dr. Meshach Ong’uti, Dr. Karl Michael Reyes, Sarah Kessler, Wayne Morriss, Dr. Hirji Adenwalla, Dr. Jyotsna Murthy, Dr. Mukunda Reddy, Dr. Andrew Hodges and Sarah Hodges, Dr. Shankar Man Rai, Dr. Carlos Navarro, Dr. Ken Salyer, Dr. Abraham Gebere Egziabher, Dr. Dan Poenaru, Dr. Gorin Jovic, Dr. Asrat Mengiste, Dr. Olfat Hashimi, Dr. Keith Rose, Mansoor Chowdhury, Dr. Casio Raposo do Amaral and his wife Vera, Dr. Shi Bing, Dr. Ruyao Song, Dr. Liu Xinhua, Yan Ming Fu, Dr. Li Li, Dr. Wang Xing, Dr. Vithal Lahane, Dr. Anant Sinha, Dr. Binita Sinha, Dr. Prateek Kumar, Dr. Vijai Singh, Dr. Sanjay Agarwal, Dr. P.K. Chhajer, Dr. Bharat Sharma, Dr. G.S. Kalra, Dr. Akhilesh Sharma, Arun Mathur, Dr. Krishna Kumar, and Dr. N. Panchavarnam.