By Daniel Krieger for Alliance for Smiles When Arkhar Htet (“Everybody Loves Him”) was born with a cleft lip and palate, his dad, U Zaw Zaw Naing, was afraid to tell his wife. Fearing what she might think of his birth defect, he sat down and explained to her before she saw the baby that no matter what, they must...
Kyaw Kyaw Bo from Bago, Myanmar
By Daniel Krieger for Alliance for Smiles When Aye Thwin of Bago, Myanmar gave birth to her son at home, her mother snatched him away and refused to let her see him. “I kept asking, ‘What’s wrong with my son?’” she recalls. Her mother wouldn’t say. The next day, when it was time to breast-feed him, she finally saw what...
Single Mom Eh Chirs Hto
By Daniel Krieger Eh Chirs Hto sits on a sofa in the VIP room at Victoria Hospital in Yangon with her daughter, 16-month old Hnin Thazin Moon. They just got here, having traveled five hours by bus from Padoh, their hometown, to begin the process of fixing her toddler’s cleft lip and palate. At the hospital, where over 100 kids...
