St Michael’s pupils create medical gowns for children in India

Nov 25 2009 by Sharon Liptrott, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

NINE-year-old pupils at St Michael’s Primary school in Dumfries are making operation gowns for children in India.

The 24 children in P5 were so moved by the Send A Smile Appeal, run by BBC television programme Blue Peter, that they begged class teacher Mrs Helen McKindle to let them join in.

Last week they decorated and created their 82nd medical gown from t-shirts donated by pupils, staff and parents which will be used to help transform the lives of children in India needing cleft lip or cleft pallet operations.

And the race is on to make even more by next Thursday ... if Standard readers generously donate clean and unwanted t-shirts to the school on Glebe Street as soon as possible.

Every gown made by the children will be worn by a child having the life-changing operation by medical aid, Operation Smile.

And each gown saves Operation Smile from having to spend £3 ... leaving them more money to carry out more operations.

Mrs McKindle said: “The children are amazing and we are really proud of them. They have led the whole thing. They made appeal posters, created a PowerPoint presentation, and have discovered as much as they can about all the issues.

“They have transformed donated t-shirts into colourful operating gowns. The more gowns that Send a Smile receive the more operations can be performed.”

Mrs McKindle says that in the UK one in 700 children are born with a cleft lip (a gap in their lip) or a cleft palate (a hole in the top or back of the mouth) but operations are performed routinely as soon as possible.

She said: “In 42 developing countries including India, these operations are not carried out until a charity steps in with medical aid. It means children can grow into adulthood with cleft lips and they get bullied and there is a social stigma. It is also known that they get abandoned by their parents.”

The class has also been learning about India and its culture. A parent cooked an Indian banquet for them and they are to try Bhangra dancing, while another parent who is a doctor is to talk to them about her experiences training there.