Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, Reading Away the Days, and Reading a Little Bit of Everything.
Time for yet another giveaway hop, because I clearly have a giveaway fetish. Not that that's a bad thing, especially for you.
This time, however, I'm going to spotlight a charity first.
Smile Train is a charity that I, or rather, my boyfriend, makes a large donation to each year. (I would, but my income is basically his, so technically I'm donating too.) Anyway, the point is, I came across this charity when I was maybe nine years old and it left its mark on me. Ever since, I've become almost obsessed with it, recruiting donators and more. So of course, it is my chosen charity to spotlight.
(And to avoid plagiarism accusations, I readily admit that the following quotes were taking directly from Smile Train's website.)
THE PROBLEM: Every year more than 165,000 children are born with clefts: most can't afford surgery. Clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children who are suffering with unprepared clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly, aren't allowed to attend school or hold a job. Being born with a cleft in a developing country is truly a curse. Every baby born in Uganda with a cleft is given the name Ajok which means literally, "cursed by God." Some newborns are killed or abandoned right after birth. The good news is that every single child with a cleft can be helped with surgery that costs as little as $250. It's a true medical miracle that gives a child back their life.
THE SOLUTION: Give a child back their future with surgery that costs as little as $250. Provide free cleft lip and palate surgery for hundreds of thousands of children around the world. That's what we do. We empower local doctors in developing countries by providing free surgical education. Smile Train can give a child a second life with survey that costs as little as $250.
REPORT CARD:
- 725000+ free cleft surgeries have transformed poor childrens' lives in the past 12 years
- 39000+ free virtual DVDs distributed to medical professionals
- 320+ surgeries a day; every 5 minutes a life is changed thanks to donors like you
- 24% average yearly program growth
- 58 number staff members
- 84 number of countries in which Smile Train has helped children
- 1000+ free medical articles & publications we make available
- 1100+ number of Smile Train partner hospitals
- 1400+ number of Smile Train medical conferences
- 2200+ number of partner surgeons
- 120000+ total number of free cleft surgeries we will provide this year
- 2.4 million free "Smile Pinki" DVDs provided (order your own "Smile Pinki" DVD for FREE here)
- 30 million households which have received useful information on cleft lip & palate
Smile Train was founded in 199 with the mission of providing every child born with a cleft the same opportunities in life as a child born without.
This milestone, marked by three consecutive reconstructive surgeries performed simultaneously by three local surgeons in three operating rooms in General Coal Hospital in Beijing, China, reflects the impact of the Smile Train model and how small donations can make large change in childrens' lives. Seven celebrities from different professional fields were also on hand to to celebrate this surgery milestone, including Kun Jiang, Zhao Ming and Zhou Zhibo. Charles B. Wang, Co-Founder & Chairman commented on the charity's milestone accomplishment: "Our collaborations with locally-based surgeons and partner hospitals around the world enable us to help so many children in need. We are so proud to have achieved this record-breaking number of surgeries in China as we strive to reach a goal of 750000 surgeries performed throughout the whorl by June 2012."
Smile Train closely collaborates with the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China (MOH), the China Charity Federation (CCF), the Chinese Stomatological Association (CSA), and partners with 397 hospitals throughout the country.
Smile Train uses the latest technology to provide efficient surgeries to children around the world. The organization created the first virtual surgery software for cleft and produced an entire library of advanced 3D animations used to train thousands of surgeons around the world.
"With a donation of $250 we are able to provide a child with a second chance at life and are thankful to have such dedicated people working to improve the lives of these children," said Priscilla Ma, Smile Train Executive Director. "We also thank our generous donors for making this possible."
PRAISE FOR SMILE TRAIN:
PRAISE FOR SMILE TRAIN:
- "Excellent safety and quality record."
- "…One of the most productive charities—dollar for deed—in the world." New York Times
- "Largest cleft charity in the world, helping more children with cleft lips and palates than any other organization."
(End of shameless quoting from the website.)
Heard enough? Want to donate to my favorite charity? CLICK HERE!
I will, of course, understand 100% if you don't donate. Not all of us are lucky enough to be able to donate hundreds of dollars to all of the blogs on the blog hop, and picking and choosing will be necessary. Still, if you could donate even a few dollars I would be so, so, so grateful. At the very least, I would love if you could order a "Smile Pinki" DVD. I mean, come on, it's free. And no one doesn't love free stuff :)
But chances are, most of you are only here for my giveaway, so let's get to that!
As always, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner, who will be given 48 hours to respond. If I have not received a response after 48 hours, I will choose a new winner. I will continue to do so until I have reached a winner. This particular giveaway will close on April 4, 2012 at 12:00 P.M. PST.
For this giveaway, I will have one winner. I'm feeling generous after donating to Smile Train, so I'm giving away an ereader. I happen to know that everyone prefers a different type of ereader, so the winner will each get to select which device they would like to receive from me.
Two guidelines as usual:
- You must be at least thirteen years of age. If under eighteen years old, please have a parent's/guardian's permission before entering.
- This giveaway is open internationally, because who cares about shipping when there are children who don't even have proper lips out there? (Dropping a not-so-subtle hint to donate…that's the last one, though. I promise.)
Time to enter, darlings!
Lovelovelove,
And don't forget to check out the other featured charities in this hop!