Operation Smile has been working in Egypt since 2005, providing care for children born with cleft conditions.
Since then, we have provided over 2,410 cleft surgeries, around 330 burn surgeries and nearly 2,700 comprehensive cleft care services. This work has been possible with the support of dedicated volunteers who offer their time and talent to improve the health and wellbeing of children born with cleft conditions.
THE NEED
One in 600 births. In Egypt, it is estimated that over 5,000 children are born with a cleft condition every year – around one in 600 births.
Many of these children live beyond the reach of any hospital care. According to Operation Smile’s survey, 52% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs do not have a hospital within two hours of their home. The Lancet Commission proposed that at least 80% of the population should live within two hours of a hospital.
Financial burden. 25% of the population in Egypt is at risk of catastrophic expenditure for surgery. Operation Smile’s survey revealed that 38% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs in Egypt could not have undergone surgery without the support of Operation Smile.
With nearly 30% of the 105.8 million people living in Egypt falling below the poverty line, patients with cleft conditions face financial barriers to receiving the care they need.
Limited health workforce. Compared to high income countries, which have an average of 11.4 nurses and midwives per 1,000 people, Egypt faces a critical shortage, with just 1.9 nurses and midwives per 1,000 individuals.
Egypt has 50 specialized surgical workers per 100,000 population, while in high income countries, the rate stands at 71 specialized surgical workers.
OUR FORMULA FOR TRANSFORMATION
Operation Smile’s formula for transformational impact combines care delivery & capacity-building.
Education programs are at the center of Operation Smile’s strategy to increase access to surgery closer to the patient’s home.
Each surgical program brings together providers from all over the world for a unique opportunity to share knowledge and innovate. This type of bi-directional learning is essential to redistributing knowledge between providers and building capacity in the areas of greatest need.
Our work in health policy & advocacy and health infrastructure & equipment addresses structural barriers to care and helps build robust health systems. Operation Smile’s research & innovation efforts inform all aspects of our decision-making and allow us to have a comprehensive understanding of the impact our programs have on patients.
HUB & SPOKES
To ensure that every child has access to care close to home, we equip the providers within our patients’ communities with skills and resources to deliver high quality care. We build the needed capacity by harnessing the talent and resources that exist within the country, usually in the bigger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where most patients lack access to care.
In Egypt, Operation Smile has two hubs in Assiut.
We have spokes in four locations – Aswan, Assiut, Cairo and Suez.
We work with hospital partners in Cairo, Assiut, and Minia.
During Fiscal Year July 2024-June 2025, Operation Smile Canada has committed to invest $327,736, accounting for 18% of Egypt’s total projected budget for the fiscal year, which will directly contribute to providing life-changing surgical care for 540 patients and provide training for 200 health workers.
Cleft Care Programs
Operation Smile plans to provide safe and high-quality surgery for around 540 patients. We will provide oral health services to 2,000 patients, nutritional care to 300 patients, psychosocial consultations to 100 patients and speech therapy to 40 patients.
Education
Partnering with local universities and Egyptian medical leaders, as well as enabling access to education opportunities, will allow local health systems to increase access to high-quality care for patients. Over the course of the following year, Operation Smile will train 200 health workers in surgery, anesthesia, pediatrics, nursing, biomedical technology, speech therapy, oral health and other fields. Operation Smile will provide American Heart Association training courses in Basic Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support to target the infant mortality rate.
FIVE-YEAR VISION
Over the next five years, Operation Smile will address barriers to cleft care in Egypt by strengthening the health system and reaching a high volume of patients in Cairo and in the Nile delta region.
Operation Smile aims to deliver surgical care for over 3,000 patients and comprehensive cleft care consultations for more than 15,000 patients.
To bring care closer to the patients’ home, Operation Smile will work to define spokes and will establish hub sites in Aswan, Minia, Cairo and the Suez/Sinai Peninsula. This will allow us to increase patient output and services by between five and ten percent annually.
Operation Smile believes that health workforce education and training will help us achieve sustainable and long-lasting impact. In the next five years, Operation Smile will become a National Educational Center for cleft surgical training and offer training education programs, such as the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) and Helping Babies Breathe (HBB). We will also launch a 3- to 6-month fellowship program in all cleft-related specialties. In partnership with Cairo University and Assiut University, we will expand our research initiatives and take on new research programs on tissue typing and molecular biology.
