Operation Smile

“Healing children’s smiles. Making the world a better place. At Operation Smile, they measure themselves by the joy they see on children’s faces. They’re more than a charity. More than an NGO. They’re a mobilised force of medical professionals and caring hearts who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

More than 200,000 children are born with a severe cleft condition each year — often unable to eat, speak, socialise or smile. In some places these children are shunned and rejected. And in too many cases, their parents can’t afford to give them the surgeries they need to live a normal life.

That’s where Operation Smile come in. Since 1982, Operation Smile — through the help of dedicated medical volunteers — has provided free surgeries to children in more than 50 countries, healing their smiles and bringing hope for a better future.

At Operation Smile, their medical volunteers provide safe, effective and free cleft lip and cleft palate repair surgery for children born all over the world. They are an international medical humanitarian organisation dedicated to raising awareness of this life-threatening issue and providing lasting solutions that will allow children to be healed, regardless of financial standing, well into the future.

They have a presence in over 50 countries, and their free surgeries and medical missions are made possible by the thousands of volunteers and donors, throughout the world, who generously contribute time, talent and resources to our cause. Giving every child the chance to smile.

Every child deserves the ability to smile and a chance to thrive. But in many parts of the world, children with cleft lip and cleft palate are hidden away, too embarrassed to attend school and face uncertain futures because their parents cannot afford to provide the surgery they need.

Their free, life-changing surgeries take as little as 45 minutes, and can give a boy or girl with a facial deformity a lifetime of smiles. Plus, every child they heal creates a ripple effect on the child’s family, community and country. After surgery, the child can become a more productive member of society and enrich their community.

And when they leave a country, they leave behind a legacy of education, training and equipment building a self-sufficient global health network focused on continuing the mission and transforming lives. Through the face of a child, they forge new partnerships, alliances and health initiatives to make the world a better place.

Thanks to the generosity and spirit of volunteerism shown by their supporters, they heal thousands of children per year and, today, more than 140,000 girls and boys have a new chance at a new life because of their work. With your help, how many lives can they change tomorrow?