Smile Train’s Team Empower making races life-changing
COMMITTED to providing corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palates, international charity organization Smile Train has made significant headway in its cause since setting up shot in the country in 2001.
Offering its services for free, it is now approaching 50,000 cleft surgeries performed locally with help from 50 partner hospitals nationwide, with potential for “wider scope” still high moving forward, Smile Train officials said.
An effective way that the organization is going about its mission is through sports, in particular Team Empower, its global endurance fund- raising program.
The program gives athletes the ability to make their race count by creating an online fund- raising page and encourage friends and family to show support by donating to the cause.
Smile Train Team Empower has charity slots to sold- out marathons and multi-sport races, including a number of Ironman races around the world, where athletes who want to do their share in cleft charity can join and help.
Recently, Team Empower was employed in the Philippines to help fund its work in the country
Ten athletes, namely, Rojan Pajarin, who was born with a cleft lip and palate and is now an elite runner; Dr. Gene Tiongco, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who performs cleft surgeries for Smile Train; swim coach Bing Benares; equestrian Lucas Lorenzo; fashion designer Dennis Lustico and seasoned triathletes JR Mejia, Bernard Perez, JJ Sarona, Aron Villarosa and Arlene Yu, represented Smile Train in the Cobra Ironman 70.3 held in Mactan, Cebu, in August.
The athletes, as part of Smile Train Team Empower, committed to raise $ 2,000, or at least P100,000, each to help fund cleft surgeries in the country.
According to Kimmy Coseteng- Flaviano, country director for Smile Train Philippines, the maiden run of Team Empower in the country was a success, with the group having met the goals it has set for itself, including raising funds to cover 90 cleft surgeries.
“The debut of Team Empower here in the Philippines was a success. It was great to see our athletes representing Smile Train on their uniforms to create further awareness for the organization,” said Ms. Coseteng- Flaviano when asked by BusinessWorld, during their thanksgiving celebration at I’m Hotel in Makati City last week, how the maiden Team Empower program in the Philippines did.
GRATIFYING
For Mr. Pajarin, having the chance to race for Smile Train and the community he is part of is very gratifying and a worthwhile experience.
“Smile Train really changed my life. It gave me an opportunity to live a normal life,” said a teary-eyed Pajarin during the thanksgiving.
“It’s really life- changing for me. I really trained hard for the race and made sacrifices but it’s all worth it for I knew it was for a good cause,” he added.
Mr. Pajarin was able to finish the Ironman race in six hours and 26 minutes and at 438th place out of 1,774 racers.
With the success of the first Team Empower program in the country, Ms. CosetengFlaviano said they are girding for a wider program in 2018, which will include slots for the first- ever full- distance Ironman in the country in Subic, Zambales, in June, and Ironman 70.3 races in Davao and Cebu.
They are encouraging more athletes to take part in the program and pick up the cause.
“Such platform has brought us to people who otherwise would not have known of us. It creates awareness. I mean a lot of people want to help, they just don’t know where, how and who to give it to. But through our athletics program, a lot of athletes get to tap into their own networks. And even companies come in and join even if before they are not into health they are more open to discussing with Smile Train,” said Ms. Coseteng- Flaviano, whose group can be reached through smiletrain. org/ get- involved/ team- empower or philippines@ smiletrain. org.