In 1982, Dr. William (Bill) P. Magee, Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen (Kathy), a nurse and clinical social worker, traveled to the Philippines with a team of medical providers to repair children’s cleft lips and cleft palates. Around 300 families arrived hoping to receive treatment for the children, but the team could provide surgical care for only 40 children. To help more children living with cleft conditions, Bill and Kathy founded Operation Smile.
Over the past 40 years, Operation Smile has provided approximately 45,000 patients with clinical care in the Philippines.
But there is more to do.
During Fiscal Year July 2025-June 2026, Operation Smile will invest $2 million to provide high-quality surgical care for nearly 1,830 patients and train 340 health workers.
Over the course of the following five years, Operation Smile will deliver surgical care for approximately 11,900 patients and cleft care consultations for approximately 12,000 patients.
Cleft Care Programs
Over the course of the year, Operation Smile aims to deliver safe surgical care to nearly 1,830 patients. We also provide consultations in nutrition (~190 patients), dentistry (170 patients) and speech therapy (~650 patients). Operation Smile’s local Student Clubs will support our efforts to recruit more patients in need of cleft care.
Education Programs
This year, 340 health workers will receive targeted training in surgery, anesthesia, pediatrics, biomedical technology, speech therapy, oral health and nursing, helping to expand access to safe, high-quality cleft care. Training formats will include workshops, residency rotations, virtual reality simulations, conference participation and online modules. In partnership with the American Heart Association, Basic Life Support instruction will enhance emergency response skills.
Operation 100, our bold strategy to bring essential surgical care closer to patients’ homes, will impact the Philippines this year as we equip a cleft operative team in the city of Tagum with advanced skills, essential equipment and enhanced health infrastructure.
THE NEED
1 in 500 births. In the Philippines, for every 500 births, one baby is born with a cleft condition.
Financial burden. Out-of-pocket expenses often prevent families from accessing necessary treatment. 17% of the population is at risk of impoverishing expenditure for surgical care, while 25% faces catastrophic expenditure to reach surgical care.
Shortfall of health workers. Outside of densely populated areas, the country faces a shortage of medical providers. A study found that physicians, professional nurses and midwives are more likely to work in areas where salaries are higher and near communities where they were trained, which leaves around 75% of cities and municipalities in the country with an insufficient number of health workers. The Philippines has 10 specialist surgical workers per 100,000 people, falling short of the minimum target set by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery of 20 providers per 100,000 people.
Absence of cleft policy. The absence of a cleft registry or national plan to increase access to care creates barriers to reaching patients across the country’s 2,000 inhabited islands.
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.
Operation Smile’s hubs in Cebu, Pampanga, Santa Ana and Davao provide year-round cleft care for our patients. Our new Center of Excellence in Cebu serves as a foundation for medical education, functioning as a training facility for cleft care specialties. This Center aims to build sustainable cleft surgical teams in spoke hospitals across the Visayas.
Operation Smile’s spoke is based in Bacolod.
In the next five years, Operation Smile Philippines plans to expand its system of hubs and spokes across the country.
FIVE-YEAR VISION
Over the next five years, Operation Smile will provide surgical care for approximately 11,900 patients and comprehensive cleft care consultations for approximately 12,000 patients. Patients in the Philippines will have access to year-round comprehensive cleft care in 12 of the 17 regions of the country, driven through partnerships with 12 hospitals. We will also establish an additional hub in Bacolod.
The Cebu Center of Excellence will serve as a dynamic hub for multidisciplinary cleft care training. By layering Operation Smile Academy e-learning with hands-on simulation (including Apple VisionPro/Virtual Reality), live-case exposure, student rotations and annual Infection Prevention Training, we will cultivate a sustainable, high-competence workforce poised to advance cleft care across the Philippines.
In the next five years, our formal residency program with partner universities will credential over 20 surgeons. Our Student Program will transform this grassroots network into a nationwide force of 2,200+ active student advocates. These students will enhance patient support and community outreach.
