Shijun’s story Although the harassment he received made him angry, Shijun chose to walk away instead of fighting with those…
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Asian boy with cleft
Operation Smile Ghana Aba brought Moses to Operation Smile Ghana, hoping he would be treated, but at three-months-old and suffering…
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Pedro’s story Across a dry ravine, a sun-parched clay road bends toward an array of small lots lined with fences…
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Pedro holding a photo of himself before cleft surgery. Photo: Camilo Zapata Fonnegra
Faustina’s story The condition of the road stands in stark contrast to the lush natural beauty that surrounds it as…
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Faustina holds a photo of herself before her cleft surgery
Lilia’s story Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, health systems in developed countries were pushed to their limits while the healthcare inequities…
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Mum holding baby girl before her cleft lip and cleft palate surgery
In Vietnamese, Ngan’s name means “star,” but she wasn’t able to smile brightly when she was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate.
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Crying girl with a cleft lip and cleft palate

Programme updates

Find out how our surgical programmes are strengthening local health systems and training the next generation of medical leaders.

Training anaesthetists in Rwanda

Anaesthesia is vital to the delivery of safe surgery, but there is a dramatic shortage of trained anaesthetists in Rwanda. In this densely popualated country, 11.9 million people are served by just 15 anaesthetists and anaesthesiologists.

Dr Paulin Banguti is working to fill this void – he’s director of the post-graduate anaesthesia programme at the University of Rwanda. During the March 2016 Operation Smile surgical training rotation at Rwinkwavu District Hospital, he led a group of anaesthesia residents to observe and learn from volunteer anaesthesiologists from around the world.

Medical staff prepare a patient for anaesthesia

Strengthening health systems in Malawi

To enable Operation Smile to serve and treat more people living with cleft conditions, we focus on increasing the surgical capacity of low-and middle-income countries like Malawi so that cleft care for local people can continue, even after a surgical programme ends.

Operation Smile Malawi has worked to encourage and educate local surgeons, doctors and nurses, and now has nearly 50 percent of its medical volunteers from Malawi. Surgical training rotations train and empower local surgeons to help their own communities and strengthen health systems for the future.

Cleft Surgeon Tilinde Chokotho with cleft patient