Siliconindia Magazine

Cover Story

ABMSS: Treating Cleft, Mending Smiles & Speech

The Indian sub-continent yields an estimate of 24.5 million births on an annual scale, with an incidence of seven in every 1000 children who fall victim to the congenital deformities of cleft lip and cleft palate. With complexities ranging from speech, hearing and teeth formation, the problem goes beyond the most obvious disfigurement of face further extending to repeated infections, social stigma, difficulties in eating and breathing. With a noble purpose to return smiles to these faces, Akila Bharatha Mahila Seva Samaja, well-known as ABMSS, is a charitable organization (an NGO) established in 1993 that focuses on providing free cleft surgeries and comprehensive care. Conducting over 2500 surgeries operations annually across the country with around 50 percent being cleft palate,...