Operation Smile helps cleft lip kids in rural China

It's a simple operation, but it can transform a child's life by restoring the smile on her face.

Yang Yan is a young girl who lives in a rural village in Yunnan with her parents, who are poor farmers. When Yan turned seven her parents were going to enrol her in school, but the girl refused and cried, saying the other children would laugh at her.

Yan was born with a cleft lip, making it difficult for her to eat and speak as she was growing up. Although her parents tried to save money for a lip operation, they never had enough income from ploughing fields and keeping pigs.

In 2009, Operation Smile's volunteer doctors arrived at a nearby hospital, and Yan was among the dozens of children with cleft lips or palates who underwent the 45-minute operation.

Before the surgery, Yan had been a shy and quiet girl who hid behind her father. She would not speak, only nodding or shaking her head when people asked her questions.

When the volunteers returned two years later, they found Yan's upper lip had recovered perfectly. She was now a cheerful girl eager to play with other children.