Author: EBMA foundation
Date: July 2025
Tags: Cleft Recovery Story
In the quiet village of Bongaon, a baby named Mithi Mondal was born and silence followed.
Not joy. Not celebration. Just silence.
She was the firstborn of a young couple, and her arrival should have been met with sweets, songs, and blessings. Instead, it brought confusion and whispers.
Mithi had been born with a cleft lip and palate.
Her mother looked down at her and saw something she hadn’t expected. And the village saw something they didn’t understand.
In Bongaon, where myths travel faster than facts, blame came quickly.
“She must have looked at the wrong moon.”
“Maybe she cooked fish during the eclipse.”
“It’s her fault.”
Mithi’s mother was blamed for something she didn’t cause—and couldn’t fix alone.
Meanwhile, Mithi’s father, like many in the area had to travel to other states to earn a meagre living. Left alone, her mother was surrounded by shame, isolation,
and a child who cried often but couldn’t be properly fed.
There were no doctors nearby who could help. No neighbors who would understand. No resources to make the journey feel possible.
They searched. Asked. Waited. Knocked on clinic doors.
Every answer was the same—Too far. Too expensive. Too late.
But her parents didn’t stop looking. Not when they saw her struggle to eat. Not when her cries grew weaker. Not when they had nothing left but hope.
Then one day, someone whispered about a chance. A medical mission. A team that helps children like Mithi.
They had never heard of Free to Smile. But those three words felt like a lifeline.
With borrowed money, packed meals, and trembling hearts, they made the 150 km journey to Kolkata.
It wasn’t just a physical journey. It was a crossing—from despair into possibility.
In November 2024, Mithi had her first surgery.
The team from Free to Smile welcomed her not as a case, but as a child. With dignity. With care. With love.
When her parents saw her after the surgery, they couldn’t speak. They simply held her and cried.
The mark of shame was gone. And in its place was a smile.
A real one. A radiant one. A promise of the life ahead.
That day, they saw the daughter they had always imagined—and the future they had almost given up on.
And something unexpected began to happen.
Back in Bongaon, people noticed.
The whispers were different now.

“Where did you go?”
“Can they help others too?”
Mithi’s face was no longer a reason for shame. It became a symbol of change.
When they returned for her follow-up a few months later, her parents stood taller. They were no longer victims of ignorance. They were ambassadors of hope.
In November 2025, they will come came again—this time for her cleft palate surgery.
And it was done. Just like before. With care. With kindness. With life-changing precision.
Today, Mithi is thriving.
She eats well. Laughs more. Babble-talks to herself. Plays with her fingers. And smiles—a lot.
Her family no longer hides her. They hold her proudly.
They know now that their daughter is not a curse, but a gift.
And they are not alone.
At that same mission, Little Ritam Sasmal got his lip repaired and returned later for palate correction.
Each smile, each surgery, a quiet revolution.
And every single one of them—made possible because someone like you chose to care.
Someone who believed that a cleft shouldn’t define a child.
Someone who saw not deformity—but potential.
Someone who gave not out of excess—but out of empathy.
Mithi’s father, overwhelmed, said:
“I cannot repay this gift. But I can tell her, one day, how people who never knew her gave her the power to smile.”
That is what this work is. Not just surgery. But soul work.
It is the act of restoring dignity. Of healing more than a face. Of breaking generations of shame.
But we cannot stop now.
Because for every Mithi, there are hundreds still waiting.
Still being blamed. Still suffering. Still hoping someone will come.
You can be that someone.
When you give, you don’t just fund a procedure.
You change a life. A family. A community.
You replace shame with pride. Silence with song. Tears with a smile.
You give what every child deserves—freedom.
The freedom to smile.