For God and the Empire

Bali’s Mary Northmore Visiting QE II to be Made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

(6/19/2011)

On Wednesday, June 22, 2011, Mary Northmore, a guardian angel who resides in Bali, will visit Buckingham Palace in London for her investiture as a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

The widowed-wife of the great Indonesian artist Abdul AzizMuch, Maru is much loved and respected in her decades-long home of Bali as the creator of the Seniwati Gallery of Art for by Balinese women and the founder of a Senyum Bali Foundation.

Mary’s work since 2005 with the Yayasan Senyum Bali has earned her an invitation for an audience with the Queen. The Bali Smiles Foundation provides critically important surgical procedures for Indonesian people suffering from cranial-facial deformities, performed by dedicated Indonesian and Australian medical teams.

Expressing his delight on Mary Northmore’s recognition with MBE Honors, the British Ambassador to Indonesia, Martin Hatfull, said: “Mary has made a major contribution to the health, happiness and quality of life of many disadvantaged people in Bali and neighboring areas of Nusa Tenggara through Yayasan Senyum Bali’ (The Smile Foundation Bali), which she founded in 2005.")

Yayasan Senyum Bali – Organization

Yayasan Senyum Bali is a non-profit, independent organization working to bring health care to people with craniofacial disabilities.
These patient disabilities include cleft lip and palate and a wide variety of other conditions such as Goldenhar Syndrome, Apert Syndrome, facial tumours and facial accident trauma.
Yayasan Senyum Bali works to raise fund for cranio-facial operations and also establishes partnerships with other organizations to provide logistical and medical support to patients with cranio-facial abnormalities.
This support includes:
o Patient transport to and from home to attend hospital appointments.
o Patient accommodation at our Smile House facility in Denpasar.
o Emotional and logistics support for patients with facial abnormalities to progress them through the health care system.
o The supplying of food for patient plus one escort when they are at the Smile House.
o Making all necessary arrangements including the obtaining of passports, visas and flights to Australia for patients in need of facial surgery at the Australian Cranio-facial Unit in Adelaide.
Yayasan Senyum Bali also manages a Patient Recall System for patients to enable them to attend subsequent operations, check-ups and ongoing treatment at hospitals where their operations were performed to enable them to access ongoing health care. A high percentage of patients with cleft lip abnormalities usually need follow up operations for cleft palate or further appointments for dental work or speech and sometimes hearing therapy.
Yayasan Senyum Bali was founded in 2005 by Mary Northmore, a resident of Bali and an Indonesian national who is the Foundation chairperson.