Smile Train

  • Empowers local medical professionals by providing training, funding, and resources to deliver FREE cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care.
  • Offers a sustainable, scalable global health model, in contrast to temporary mission-based trips.
  • Enables 365-day-a-year access to care through local partner hospitals.
  • Improves children's ability to eat, breathe, speak, and thrive.
  • Provides speech therapy, psychological support, nutritional services, orthodontics, and more.
  • Ensures children receive the full spectrum of care needed for long-term health and well-being.
  • In the past 25+ years, supported 2+ million free, high-quality cleft surgeries (up from 1.5 million in prior messaging.
  • Works in 75–95+ countries, partnering with over 1,000 hospital.
  • Trains and supports 20,000+ medical professionals, with 100,000+ training opportunities and thousands of hands-on and virtual training sessions.
  • Average cost for a cleft surgery: approximately $400, making the model cost-effective
  • Built on a “teach a man to fish” philosophy—investing in local capacity for an ongoing, self-sustaining impact
  • Maintains strict safety and quality protocols, including surgical standards, anesthesia guidelines, patient record-keeping, and audits
  • Develops and disseminates advanced tools like virtual surgery simulators, apps for speech therapy, and digital patient databases  
  • The sustainable model is far more efficient and scalable than periodic mission trips.
  • Local experts deliver care within their communities, ensuring cultural sensitivity and continuity.
  • Comprehensive care ensures children not only survive—but thrive.
  • Smile Train remains dedicated to ensuring every child with a cleft has access to safe, high-quality, comprehensive care.
  • Your support helps sustain this impactful model—transforming one smile, one child at a time.