Imphal, March 19, 2010: Low-esteem, loss of self-confidence, shame, sense of guiltiness all combined together to inculcate a suicidal tendency in both the mother and the father.

This is the story of parents of four young children; three of them were born with deformed lips and palates but now literally redeemed by the Smile Train Shija Cleft Project.

Somi SA (38) and Yangmila (35) are residents of Namrei village under Chingai sub-division of Ukhrul district.

They have four children - one daughter and three sons.

Three of them have congenital deformities in lips and palates.

Their daughter Rawonla, eldest of the siblings, was born with deformed lips and palates.

Being a poor," peas ant family, they mortgaged their agricultural field for Rs 25,000.With the money, the parents took their daughter to RIMS where they stayed for around 75 days during which Rawonla underwent surgical operation.

But the deformities could not be corrected fully.

Though the couple was blessed with normal son, their third and fourth children suffered congenital lip and palate deformities like their eldest child.

This put Somi and Yangmila under enormous mental distress and embarrassing situation thinking that they were unable to give birth to normal babies.

Yangmila was even ashamed of herself on seeing that her children were unable to suckle because of their deformed lips and palates.

In addition to the emotional pangs suffered by the mother, the family had to spend extra money on buying powdered milk for their young kids.

Then like a message from the messiah, a distant relative of Somi came with the information that clefts and deformities can be fully cured at Shija Hospital and Re search Institute, Imphal free of cost.

That was in June, 2006. Overcome with their enthusiasm to treat and cure their children, the young couple guided by one Kanrei of their village came to Imphal together with their three children the same year.

Even as two of their children underwent surgical operations at Shija Hospital, the third child could not be operated as he fell ill.

The hospital staff asked Somi and Yangmila to come back but they could not due to sheer poverty.

The recent camp organized by Shija Hospital and Research Institute at Ukhrul turned out to be a heaven-sent for the worried and depressed parents.

"They (Shija Hospital) were sent by God because He has mercy upon us.

We were unable to redeem our agricultural land mortgaged earlier when Dr Palin gave me Rs 500 to bring my children to his hospital..

I just didn't understand how to express my gratitude", Somi said to The Sangai Ex press.

Borrowing Rs 7000 from I their village at 10 percent per month, Somi and Yang mila came to Shija Hospital - together with their children on March 16. Now, the unstitched portions of cleft Hps and palates have been already completed.

Barethem, the third child would undergo operation tomorrow.

Yangmila said that all her father's gifts which included cattle, buffalo, gun and land have all been sold off in their efforts to treat their children.

"Out of shame, I could not even seek help from any person.

At one point of time, I preferred death than being alive", Yangmila recalled with teary eyes.

SHRI managing director Dr Kh Palin said that this was the first time he came across three children of the same family suffering from cleft.

"We once believed they would never come back.

We were looking for them during the recent camp held at Ukhrul, Dr Palin said.

Saying that he was overjoyed on finding them, the managing director remarked that patients coming for Smile Train project from Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Ukhrul were relatively low.

He explained that chances of delivering babies with cleft are heightened by deficiency of vitamin-B complex in the expecting mother, infection by German measles during the third month of pregnancy, use of tranquillizer and exposure to X-ray.

The Smile Train project was first launched by an NGO named Smile Train at New York, USA in 1998.Shija Hospital launched the same project in 2007 as a partner hospital.

So far, 1800 lip and palate surgeries have been conducted free of cost, Dr Palin said.

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