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Marie Angeline before her life-changing cleft surgery

Inspiring stories

Our stories from around the world highlight the courage of patients and their families, the dedication of our volunteers and staff, and the generosity of supporters like you.

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Trustee Diana’s first year on the board

Last year we welcomed three new trustees to our UK Board of Trustees. One of the three, Diana Dalton, tells us more about her experiences during her first 12 months with Operation Smile.
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A person in a blue jacket and green beanie stands in a snowy landscape, holding a small brown dog. They are both smiling, surrounded by snow-covered trees and hills. A fence runs along the path beside them.

Our global achievements in cleft care

In our last financial year, we’ve trained local teams, invested in healthcare facilities and brought safe cleft care to more people, closer to home. Here’s some of the highlights from FY23/24, from Malawi to Madagascar.
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Farida and her mother Alimatu. Photo: Lorenzo Monacelli

Training tomorrow’s surgeons

Volunteer plastic surgeon Dr Bart Stubenitsky discusses his work as a long-standing volunteer and his new role on Operation Smile UK’s Medical Sub Committee.
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Dr Bart Stubenitsky examining a patient in Antsirabe, Madagascar. Photo: Rohanna Mertes

Make change in the world

EMEA Recruitment founder Paul Toms talks to Executive Director Mairead O’Callaghan about our goals for the next decade and her experiences on surgical programmes around the world.
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Mairead O’Callaghan, assisting Medical Records. 25th Anniversary of Operation Smile in Vietnam Programme. Photo: Marc Ascher

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.

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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.

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Cleft Surgeon Tilinde Chokotho with cleft patient