Today, Mean Srey Pich is a beautiful 8-year old girl who is "always first in class", her mother boasts proudly. The slight scar on her upper lip in no way reveals the difficulties that marked the first years of her life: "My family suggested I exchange her discretely for another baby in the hospital, insisting she woud not live more than a week. I didn't believe  them, although she found it difficult to eat and drink. One day, I saw an advertisement announcing that a medical team from Opération Sourire was going to operate on clefts of all types. My heart leapt. Without waiting, I immediately rushed over to the Calmette hospital with my daughter, who was two years old at the time. She was operated on for the first time duing that year, then a second time the following year, in the same hospital."

Dr Nivo recalls one of the patients she helped: "Nino was one of our patients from Madagascar; a young man who suffers from epilepsy. During one of his attacks he fell into the kitchen fire. His face was seriously burnt, leaving his mouth unable to close and painful scars obscuring his vision. He felt forced to hide away to avoid the jeers and stares of his peers. During our visit we operated on him twice. Today, he can see again and no longer feels the need to live alone."

Didier Guinard; Director, Mongolia mission: "In every country in the world, treatment for burns is a bit like the last--and least important--wheel on the cart. When we arrived there was practically nothing at the burn injuries hospital. You can't ask the medical and paramedical staffs to do in a few years what we've done in a century. It's changing slowly, but that's good. In a few years they will be independent for most of the operations".