Malaysian Builds Smile Cambodia, Bringing Healing Touch To Kids With Facial Birth Defects 

By Vijian Paramasivam

PHNOM PENH, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- In Cambodia’s bustling landscape, one Malaysian has quietly dedicated himself to delivering social justice to underserved rural children.

Chan Kok Choy, the son of a rubber tapper from Sungai Siput South village in Kampar, Perak, transitioned from a successful banking career, where he built wealth for his clients, to actively supporting underprivileged children with medical challenges.

The unassuming 65-year-old Chan has painstakingly built Smile Cambodia, a reputable non-profit organisation, which provides free surgeries for Cambodian kids suffering from facial deformities.  

This year alone, the organisation transformed the lives of 257 children during their six surgical missions, where specialists treated cleft lips and palate disorders, burns, and provided speech evaluation and counselling to cleft patients. 

“With just a simple operation, it changed their fate and future. It is life-changing, not just for the patients who underwent the surgery but also for their families.

“I was very much encouraged and motivated by the positive impact on the lives of patients who benefited from the cleft lip and palate surgeries,” founder, executive director and vice chairman of Smile Cambodia Chan told Bernama. 

For more than twenty years, Smile Cambodia has conducted numerous missions spearheaded by Cambodian and foreign medical specialists, primarily volunteers, who bring extensive expertise in plastic surgery to their missions. 

Chan retired from his illustrious four-decade banking career in 2022, stepping down as the executive director and chief executive officer of a prominent Cambodian-grown commercial bank, which he helped to establish. 

Now, he sacrifices his hours expanding Smile Cambodia, criss-crossing the Kingdom, and bringing a change to rural healthcare.

“It is a long journey. Our mission is not complete. We still like to do more to provide comprehensive care to the cleft patients.

“In addition to cleft lip and palate surgeries, we also plan to provide proper dental care to our cleft patients and speech therapy to help selected patients in their communication,” said Chan.

Smile Cambodia was established after the US-headquartered Operation Smile ceased its Cambodian chapter in the Kingdom in early 2015.  Both organisations completed a total of 6,000 surgeries nationwide until now.

Chan, along with his team, is not only empowering rural communities and transforming the lives of infants who have to live with a painful medical condition and social stigma.

His forward-thinking leadership has further added a new dimension to his social cause. Today, his hands-on management style, combined with a deep passion to help underprivileged children, has impressed and motivated the young Cambodian generation. 

More young, fresh medical doctors, university students, corporate volunteers and even female models are beginning to support Smile Cambodia’s surgical missions. Many travel from faraway provinces using their own money and sacrifice their office leaves just to be part of the surgical tours.

Unknowingly, Chan has created a powerful volunteerism culture that is beginning to attract Cambodian youths. 

“Our local volunteers are our great assets. In our last surgical mission, we had only two overseas surgeons, and we managed to treat 46 patients, including many with cleft lip and palate deformities. 

“We hope to train a bigger pool of local volunteers to ensure the sustainability of our operations. 

“We need to invest in their capacity building through attendance of proper training, both locally and overseas. We need to ensure that they stay motivated to work with us,” said Chan.

Simile Cambodia is set to perform six surgical missions next year, including dental care and speech therapy for cleft patients.

They also plan to organise  a “Walk for Smile” in Siem Reap on March 22 next year.

-- BERNAMA