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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.
Cleft surgeon Dr Hannah John has just returned from her first Operation Smile surgical programme in the Philippines. She tells us more about her journey to become a volunteer surgeon.
We met six-month old Farida at the Korle Bu Teaching hospital. Farida has an infectious smile and brightened everyone’s day while she waited with her mum for life-changing cleft surgery.
We caught up with volunteer anaesthetist Anuraag Guleria to find out more about her experiences on Operation Smile surgical programmes around the world.
In Ghana, Operation Smile’s hub and spoke model of care is tackling the shortfall of trained surgeons and specialists, and putting safe surgery and cleft care in reach of more people.
Plastic surgeon and Operation Smile volunteer Dr (Wg Cdr) Ankur Pandya tells us more about his work in burns care and complex reconstructive surgery around the world.
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.
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.
