Celebrating World Smile Day is easier said than done for children suffering with cleft lip, which is why model Devyn Abdullah, winner of Naomi Campbell’s reality competition The Face, wants to help.
This Friday, Abdullah will host the annual event in New York City. The Bronx girl will also be revisiting her alma mater, Harry S. Truman High School, to help raise awareness for cleft lip.
Photo Credit: Frank PR
“I’m becoming more than just a model,” says Abdullah. “I’m helping to inspire.”
World Smile Day was created by the late artist Harvey Ball who wanted to devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world. After he died, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation continued his efforts with sponsoring the event every year since 1999.
Through partnering with schools all across the nation and Project Boost, Smile Train joined the nationwide celebration to help raise awareness to an issue plaguing many children today. Smile Train is the world’s leading cleft lip and palate charity helping to bring smiles to thousands of kids suffering from this problem.
With the help of donations, they are able to provide these 45-minute surgical procedures to help fix a child’s smile for only $250. Not to mention they give more than 125,000 free surgeries to children who can’t afford it throughout the world.
“A lot of people don’t understand that even though this isn’t cancer or some huge disease, it’s really a big deal to these children,” says the model.
As a mother, Abdullah says children’s suffering is sort of her soft spot and makes her want to get involved. She knows that these children are being affected in many ways, such as not being able to eat properly, speak well, and having to face being bullied and judged.
“I’m already signing up to donate myself knowing 80 cents of every dollar goes directly to surgeries,” she says.
If you would like to donate to Smile Train, please visit www.smiletrain.org.
