Operation Smile has been working in Ghana since 2011 to provide safe and high-quality care for children born with cleft conditions. Since then, our organization has coordinated more than 30 medical program sacross Ghana, providing over 2,100 surgical procedures.
But there is more to do.
During Fiscal Year July 2025-June 2026, Operation Smile will invest $1,273,100 to provide surgical care to nearly 320 patients and train approximately 390 local medical providers.
In the next five years, Operation Smile projects to deliver cleft surgeries for over 2,075 patients and comprehensive care for more than 6,000 patients.
Cleft Care Programs
Operation Smile projects to deliver surgical care to nearly 320 patients. We will expand comprehensive cleft care by providing consultations in nutrition (350 patients), oral health (120 patients) and speech therapy (∼1,250 patients). We will also continue our “Speech-on-Wheels” program that brings mobile speech clinics to patients’ homes. Operation Smile expects to recruit 600 new patients through awareness campaigns across various regions, including hard-to-reach communities.
Communication efforts will use both interpersonal and mass media channels such as roadshows, flyers, a radio docudrama and posters.
Education Programs
Operation Smile aims to provide medical training for nearly 390 health workers in Ghana in the fields of nutrition, oral health, nursing, burn care, biomedical technology and speech care. We will deliver life support and resuscitation courses in collaboration with the American Heart Association. Operation Smile will equip 2,400 caregivers in Ghana with the knowledge and skills needed to support children throughout their cleft care journey.
The Need
1 in 760 Children. In Ghana, it is estimated that for every 763 births, one child is born with a cleft condition.
Financial Burden. Surgery remains financially out of reach for many: 18% of the population faces impoverishing expenditure, while 17% faces catastrophic expenditure. Out of pocket expenses often prevent people with cleft conditions from accessing care. Operation Smile’s survey revealed that 64% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs live below the poverty line. Additionally, 75% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs in Ghana would not have been able to undergo surgery without the support of Operation Smile.
Shortfall of Health Workers. Despite Ghana’s attempt to lessen barriers to heath care access by adopting universal health insurance coverage, rural areas, which tend to have the highest levels of poverty, continue to suffer from a significant shortage of skilled medical providers. With less than two surgical specialists per 100,000 population, Ghana fails to meet the target of 20 specialists per 100,000 population set by the Lancet Commission. Surgeons in Ghana have a significant workload, with each surgeon consulting approximately 48 patients and performing about 19 surgeries on a weekly basis.
Limited Access to Surgery. According to Operation Smile’s survey, 33% 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. Ghana delivers just 869 surgical procedures per 100,000 people, falling short of the Lancet Commission’s target of 5,000 procedures. Limited access to surgery is exacerbated by strained hospital infrastructure. There is less than one hospital bed per 1,000 population, while the world average is 2.8 beds.
Barriers to Education. In Ghana, 22% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs said that their condition limited their school attendance, while 21% said that their school performance was impacted by their condition.
Bringing Care Closer to Home
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 strengthen health system capacity by harnessing the talent and resources concentrated in larger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where access to care is most limited.
The Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, which serves as Operation Smile’s hub, is Ghana’s largest Teaching Hospital where we bring together faculty from Ghana and internationally to provide specialized cleft training.
Our spokes, located in Koforidua, Cape Coast and Ho are Regional Hospitals where we will train surgical teams and establish ongoing cleft surgery sites.
Five-Year Vision
Within the next five years, Operation Smile will work to reduce barriers to accessing cleft care and increase the quality and quantity of health care providers in Ghana. Our hub in Accra will support and train providers from hospitals in three regions to deliver quality cleft care within their communities. We will also provide scholarships for two nurses and 11 speech language pathologists. Craniofacial training will be provided for one plastic surgeon in Accra and specialized training will be provided for multidisciplinary cleft teams at three spokes.
In the next five years, Operation Smile will provide surgical care for more than 2,000 patients. We will also expand access to comprehensive cleft care by delivering consultations for nearly 6,000 patients. In addition, Operation Smile will work with the Ministry of Health and a steering committee to strengthen Ghana’s National Surgical, Obstetric and Anesthesia Plans (NSOAP).
Operation 100, our bold strategy to bring essential surgical care closer to patients’ homes, will impact Ghana as we equip cleft operative teams at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital in Cape Coast and Ho Teaching Hospital in Ho with advanced skills, essential equipment and enhanced health care infrastructure over the next five years.
