Smileangel Foundation

This is the most searched keyword on Yahoo China today, 500,501 searches in one day.

Smileangel Foundation was set up in 2006  by pop singer Faye Wong and her husband Li Yapeng to help children born with cleft palate/lips to get corrective surgeries that these families could otherwise not afford. In China, there are 2.4 million people that suffer from this congenital condition but only a very small portion of them can get the appropriate treatment.

Faye Wong and Li Yapeng had a baby daughter with the cleft palate last year but fortunately for her, her parents are rich enough to fly her all the way to L.A. to have the corrective surgery done. For most other kids in China, they just have to live with the condition and a lot of them were abandoned by their own parents at birth. Faye and husband felt that they should do something about it especially since they can understand how the families must feel. Smileangel Foundation is managed by the Chinese Red Cross and has to date raised 12 million RMB.

Smileangel Charity Ball in Beijing

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKUCZSLfZoI)

I sincerely hope there can be more people like Faye Wong and Li Yapeng in China, celebrities who are willing to use their publicity for a good cause. I would also like to see pharmaceutical and medical devices companies doing more charitable health treatment for the poor. Many of them have made tonnes of money in the rapidly growing China market and I really think they should give back a little, just a little.