From Boston University - The Daily Free Press

BU Group Raises Money for Disfigured Children

After volunteering for the Plasticos Foundation during the summer of 2003, College of Arts and Sciences junior JoAnna Nguyen was inspired by the Foundation's ongoing mission of performing reconstructive surgery on disfigured children in third world countries - and expanded its altruistic ideals to the Boston University community.

Media Credit: Razan Alzayani CAS junior and Plasticos President Joanna Nguyen (left) and Kelly Beaulieu, CFA junior and vice president, raise money for disfigured children worldwide.

"The Plasticos Foundation provides resources to underdeveloped areas that would not receive such aid under normal circumstances," said Nguyen, who is the founder and president of the Plasticos Foundation at BU club. "I wanted to be able to help out from Boston."

Surgeons involved in the California-based Foundation take time off from their regular medical practices to treat impoverished children around the world suffering from congenital deformities, trauma and burn and hand abnormalities, according to the Foundation's website. The Foundation is a voluntary organization and is nonprofit, nonpolitical and nonreligious.

The purpose of the Foundation, an official Student Activities Organization club, is to raise money to help support the cost of medical services. Nguyen said the expenses of each trip range from $30,000 to $50,000, while $700 covers the cost of surgery for one child.

Dr. Larry Nichter, the Foundation's president, founded the organization in 1987 to "advance the field of plastic surgery through education and research."

Children with abnormal appearances are often ostracized by their societies, according to the Foundation's website. Some cultures believe these children are cursed, constricting them to lives of shame and pain. In repairing misshapen faces and bodies, Plasticos members have witnessed improvements in the children's lives.

"I talked to Dr. Nichter about ways I could help out the foundation on campus while I was at school and I suggested starting a club on campus," Nguyen said. "He was fully supportive and sent me information packets to use for fundraising."

BU's branch of the Foundation aims to spread awareness about the club through the Student Activities Expo and by word of mouth. By holding bake sales, raffles and selling stuffed animals, the club donates their profit to the Foundation base in California. This semester, the club is thinking about setting up a booth at the Spring Carnival.

Money raised by the club will go toward the Foundation's trip to Cuba in May. Plasticos' last trip provided help in India, after a disastrous tsunami hit the country.

"It's rewarding to be able to make such a profound difference," Nguyen said. "There are children that would have never been given a chance to function normally in society just because of a deformity. But because of Plasticos, they are given the same opportunities that other children are just born with."

Website Hosting Donated by HealthPresence Medical Websites