Our November 2021 resident training program we conducted in Kigali took our education efforts to the next level.
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Inspiring stories
Explore Stories
In the three years after receiving surgery to repair his cleft lip, Samuel’s life has changed in unimaginable ways.
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Our Transcending Borders signature initiative strives to create more resilient and inclusive health systems that serve the needs of patients with cleft conditions regardless of their immigration statuses.
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Our Transcending Borders signature initiative strives to create more resilient and inclusive health systems that serve the needs of patients with cleft conditions regardless of their immigration statuses.
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Around half of children born with a cleft palate will need support with learning to speak – thankfully, volunteer speech and language therapists like Erika Bostock are helping to ensure children with cleft conditions have a voice.
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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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From the moment the last patient departs for home with their new smile, to the months that lead up to the next surgical programme, a patient advocate’s work is never finished.
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Nearly four decades after Dr. Bill Magee and Kathy Magee held Operation Smile’s first surgical programme in the Philippines in 1982, the founding principles of love and leadership not only remain major pillars of the organisation’s mission but also a guiding philosophy that has been passed down through generations.
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Nora received three prenatal ultrasounds before her son, Damian, was born.
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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.
