Open heart, open hands
Without its global network of selfless, caring and generous volunteers, Operation Smile simply wouldn’t exist. The organization’s free, life-changing cleft surgeries are only made possible by people who unite from…
Colombia
Treating the whole patient: psychologist Andrea Díaz
Operation Smile believes in offering the most comprehensive care possible at our medical missions and care centers around the world. After more than three decades of listening to the emotional…
Nicaragua
Care for brighter futures: Iris’ story part 2
Early in the morning, Operation Smile’s team of medical specialists arrive at Hospital Alemán Nicaragüense to prepare for the two surgeries to be performed that day. Iris is one of…
Nicaragua
Care for brighter futures: Iris’ story part 1
As soon as Iris gets off the bus and, together with her mother, moves through the crowds of people at a bus station in Managua, Nicaragua, she hides. Walking behind…
Ghana
Healing more patients than ever
From Cape Coast to Koforidua, the Operation Smile Ghana team has rapidly changed the way people living in the most remote and impoverished places in the country are accessing cleft…
Colombia
Care for brighter futures: Luciana’s story
Nury sits on a sofa in their home in Bogotá, Colombia, trying to recall the moment that her first-born child, Luciana, entered the world. “She was born on a Friday…
Canada
Dr. Rodrigo Neira speaks from the heart
I joined Operation Smile in 1991 when I was a plastic surgery resident back in Colombia. Operation Smile was much smaller back then, and I had the opportunity to get…
Nicaragua
‘Nobody seemed to love this baby’
Mirna traveled for 15 hours to get to the Operation Smile medical mission in Estelí, Nicaragua today. She walked an hour and took five different buses. Along the way, she…