Comments on: Charity Organization Capitalizes on Grossness of Aid Recipients

By: Just Me

Just Me — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:14:00 +0000

I am a mother of a child who was born with a cleft lip and palate. We are fortunate enough to live in a country with subsidized healthcare and blessings such as Children’s Hospitals. Your opinions, and the fact that you have totally missed the point of this “ad” makes me so sad.
In third world countries, there can be a HUGE stigma attached to visible deformities such as this. It can affect the scope of your ENTIRE life- including your ability to have gainful employment, go to school, or even be married one day.
I do not pity him for how he looks. I pity the fact that he lives in a country where government funded healthcare programs, Children’s Hospitals, and surgeons with cutting edge techniques are not available; and where my child could have easily been that child, had she been born in another country.

We are not supposed to find him disgusting. We are supposed to imagine a life wherein a simple $250 could make the difference between huge socio-economic barriers, and a completely normal life. That, my friend, is the bigger issue here.
Smile Train, Operation Smile, and the many talented surgeons who donate their own resources every year to make trips to these countries to repair cleft lips and palates are HEROES. They change entire LIVES. These are people, they are children, they are beautiful. They deserve a happy smile. And Dehka, you are beautiful. <3

By: Yonnie3k

Yonnie3k — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:47:22 +0000

We’re supposed to pity this child not because he’s hungry or has no access to clean water or might be caught in a civil war, but because of how he looks.

Why should I assume that this child is hungry, has no access to clean water, or is caught in a civil war? Because he is brown? Isn’t it possible that he has all of these things and just doesn’t have access to a surgery that he needs or that would improve his quality of life?

By: Which Images Represent India? | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:39:38 +0000

[...] juxtaposing wealth and poverty, the white woman’s burden, the “we are all African” campaign, making charity recipients look gross, tourism in Brazil, us and them, Burger King’s Whopper Virgin campaign, India needs western [...]

By: Which Images Represent India? » Sociological Images

Which Images Represent India? » Sociological Images — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:41:15 +0000

[...] wealth and poverty, the white woman’s burden, the “we are all African” campaign, making charity recipients look gross, tourism in Brazil, us and them, Burger King’s Whopper Virgin campaign, India needs western [...]

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:08:15 +0000

If you do a little research into The Smile Train organization and the patients who receive the reconstruction surgery, you might come know that many of its patients are shunned by society simply because they look very different. In their home environment, many of these children are considered extra baggage and are treated horribly because of it.

I agree that the one-liner is grossly insufficient and panders to the more vain reader, but it is not way out in left field.

By: Dehka

Dehka — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:44:46 +0000

This ad really bothers me.
I have cleft palate and have had problems with how I looked all my life, even with being fortunate enough to live in a country where it could be repaired.

There is nothing disgusting about him; they clearly need to find a new way to appeal to the readers.

Let’s focus on the real problems.