For 11 years, Dayana’s mum Eluvia couldn’t answer her daughter’s question, “When am I going to get surgery?”
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Inspiring stories
Explore Stories
Malnutrition can prevent children from getting safe cleft surgery. In Madagascar, Eli Zakariasy is helping ensure they are healthy enough for life-changing care.
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With a career spanning 25 years in the NHS, the RAF and global volunteering programmes, Dr Ankur reflects on life-changing surgeries, unforgettable patients and a life dedicated to service.
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After appearing in our recent TV advert, Heritiana has gone from struggling with a cleft condition to thriving after life-changing cleft care.
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This Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating incredible mums by sharing inspiring stories of love, resilience and hope from families around the world.
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One year after the landmark Pan-African surgical conference, leaders reflect on progress and the road ahead for safe surgery in Africa.
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After years of volunteering with Operation Smile in Morocco, Naggie returned to Casablanca to train local nurses and help children receive life-changing cleft care.
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As Operation Smile Mexico celebrates its 20th anniversary, we take a look at the team’s exciting work across the country and explore what’s in store for the future.
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It’s been 10 years since volunteer anaesthetist Alison Chalmers first joined Operation Smile. As she returns from her latest surgical programme in Paraguay’s capital, Asunción, we reflect on her decade-long journey of service and what giving back truly means to her.
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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 populated 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.
