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Oksana Gets Onboard the Smile Train

Los Angeles, CA - Oksana gets onboard the Smile Train. www.smiletrain.org

OKSANA & SMILE TRAIN

Oksana Kolesnikova announces her latest collaboration with Smile Train on a series of CDs entitled The Smile Train Music Collection, Vol. I, with others to follow.

March 22, 2011 – Los Angeles -- Oksana Kolesnikova, world-renowned composer and pianist, discovered the moving stories of non-profit Smile Train’s dramatic transformations of children born with the life-impacting deformities of cleft lips and palates. She immediately felt compelled to help their brilliant, singular mission in developing countries around the globe. Long involved in charitable causes and passionate about sharing the gift of music, Oksana began working on her “Oksana & Friends” collection to support Smile Train’s work.

Oksana, who tours internationally and currently performs five days per week at legendary venues in Beverly Hills, California, has recorded seven CDs that include collaborations with other international musical artists. After her collaboration with Italian singing sensation Silvia Vicinelli, who interpreted Oksana’s original composition “Aurora,” she focused on creating a collection that would bring joy and inspiration to foster a sense of global community and responsibility for the well-being of all children.

This collection includes collaborations with Silvia Vicinelli and John Georgiadis, first violin, concertmaster and former conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. It is her artistic “thank you” to the thousands of medical professionals and staff members of Smile Train. All proceeds from this CD collection are donated to Smile Train, the humanitarian non-profit providing free operations to poverty-stricken children needing cleft-related surgery in more than 75 developing countries.

Oksana said, “As a mother, I know how precious your child’s smile is. The impact of removing a child’s facial deformity and giving them the beautiful smile they deserve is life-changing…and, it can happen in a handful of minutes! This gift creates such joy and restores hope for their entire family. I am honored to share my music with Smile Train. Please come aboard!”

Smile Train…Changing the World One Smile at a Time

Smile Train, one of the largest surgical, humanitarian, non-profit organizations in the world, is focused on a single problem – cleft lip and palate – providing free cleft surgery for millions of poor children in developing countries and providing free cleft-related training to thousands of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other medical professionals.

They help children in 78 of the world's poorest countries – dramatically changing the lives of children and their loved ones with a simple 45-minute surgery. It transforms faces and provides hope for the future. The sheer joy on the faces of loved ones when surgery is completed is often beyond words. Smile Train partners with local doctors and hospitals to give these children a second chance at life. Since 1999, Smile Train teams have provided over 600,000 surgeries, and expect to perform more than 100,000 this year.

Clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children who are suffering with unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly. They all face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache. Babies born with cleft lips and/or palates in developing countries are often abandoned at birth and left for dead due to the superstitions and myths surrounding clefts. Children that live with a cleft are outcast from their communities and peers: they will not attend school or ever marry. Their families live on less than $2 a day and could never afford this life-changing surgery, which can cost as little as $250.

Smile Train provides the lowest cost per surgery and holds the best safety record among cleft charities. Their brilliantly simple mission alters the course of many thousands of lives each year through cleft surgery and helps to train local medical professionals to continue this transformative work.

The Smile Train is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit recognized by the IRS, and all donations to The Smile Train are tax-deductible in accordance with IRS regulations. To donate, call 1-800-932-954, or visit their website at www.smiletrain.org.

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posted by Mgmt :: Mar 2nd 2011, 13:18