When he was small, Larry Ian Secuya was teared by children in his neighborhood at Magsungay, Barangay Singcang-Airport in Bacolod City and called him Ngi-ngi because of his congenital cleft palate and his speech deficiency. He started undergoing a life-changing experience at the age of 4 when his mother was convinced by HOPE Foundation president, Edith Villanueva, to have the boy operated on by Operation Smile specialists, who were on their third annual mission to Negros Occidental in 1990.

A follow-up surgery was conducted three years later that socially transformed the life of Larry Ian, now 21 and a Commerce freshman at Colegio d