Vasanthi Thandlam, the Academy’s Senior School English as an additional language specialist, has been selected as an Operation Smile sponsor for the Vietnam Medical Mission, taking place in July 2016.

An active volunteer for Operation Smile, an international charity group that helps children with cleft palates around the world, Vasanthi trained at the Operation Smile head office in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and has been passionately promoting the cause for five years. She started an Operation Smile club at the American International School Chennai with a small group of high school students who went on to participate in various local and international medical missions.

Now, Vasanthi will be accompanying a team of Indian students to Vietnam to make presentations on various health modules. These not only teach prevention and basic health knowledge but also help reshape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles. Health education is an effective tool to improve health in developing nations. In the future, she hopes to bring Operation Smile to the Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad.