Clara’s story In their tiny village in the highlands of Madagascar, their neighbours would quietly gossip about Clara and her…
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Inspiring stories
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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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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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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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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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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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.
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.
