Shivarudrayya (Shiva) was born with a severe cleft lip and palate in a very poor, rural area of northern India. His father is a laborer who earns about 50 cents a day. But that’s when he can get work, which is usually only 10-15 days a month.

Shiva’s parents were in shock when Shiva was born with a massive cleft. They thought it was a curse and they blamed themselves. Local folklore states that clefts occur when a pregnant woman uses a knife during an eclipse.

Even worse, they did not know that clefts can be repaired until they came across an advertisement in the local newspaper that a neighbor read to them (they are both illiterate) about a Smile Train clinic in the nearby town.

Shiva was operated on by one of Smile Train’s best partners, Dr. K. Gopal Krishnan and his all-Indian medical team, at SDM College of Dental Sciences & Hospital in Dharwad, India.

Since he was operated on when he was so young, Shiva was saved from many years of pain and heartbreak. And he will never develop the kind of speech impediment that is often impossible to correct in children who have their clefts repaired much later in life. He may never know how lucky he is.