The Gift of a Smile

Several U.S.–based, not-for-profit organizations were created to aid children born with clefts around the world. All of these groups rely on monetary contributions and donations of time by concerned citizens, health care professionals — and sometimes even celebrities. Here are three groups working to help children born with clefts reach their full potential for health and happiness:

Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by plastic surgeon Dr. Bill Magee and his wife, Kathy, a nurse and social worker. The two had traveled to the Philippines that year with a group of medical volunteers to repair cleft lips and palates. Although they aided many children on that trip, the volunteers were forced to turn away the majority of those seeking help. Today the Magee’s organization provides free surgeries to children and young adults in more than 80 countries. Operation Smile has a number of celebrity “smile ambassadors” who help raise funds for the group. Some even go on medical missions themselves.

Actress Roma Downey traveled to Vietnam in 2003. “Next to the birth of my own child, it was the most moving experience of my life,” she said. “I had forgotten that it’s in giving that you truly receive. I went there thinking I was doing them a favor, but truth be told, I came back feeling richer and fuller.”

Singer Jessica Simpson participated in a mission to Kenya in 2005. “My experience in Kenya with Operation Smile was incredible,” she said. “To witness the truly miraculous transformations in the lives of so many desperate, needy children was both powerful and personally rewarding.”

Television host Brooke Burke-Charvet and her family volunteered on a medical mission to Guadalajara, Mexico in 2013. Blogging about the experience, Brooke described helping an 11-month-old boy named Angel go through surgery to repair his deformed smile.

“I watched a miracle today,” she said. “I felt the power of selflessness in the presence of the Operation Smile team. You cannot imagine what community service is like until you live it, but it changed my life forever and opened my heart in a whole new way.”

The Cleft Palate Foundation exists to serve individuals and families affected by cleft lip/palate and other craniofacial conditions by connecting them with treatment teams, providing education, and offering personal support. The group’s website, www.cleftline.org, contains a wealth of information for parents — including videos, booklets and fact sheets on how to feed a baby who has a cleft, how clefts are repaired surgically, and many other topics. The foundation is the public-service arm of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association.

Smile Train is an international children’s charity working in more than 85 countries to provide free cleft-repair surgeries. Founded in 1999, the group focuses on training local doctors to perform cleft repairs, and sums up its approach with an old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Smile Train announced in April 2014 that it had performed its one millionth free surgery on Osawa Owiti, a six-year-old boy from Tanzania.

Celebrity supporters of Smile Train include:

Supermodel Christie Brinkley: “I was discovered for my smile, so I cannot imagine what life must be like for a child who goes through their entire life without being able to smile, or what it must be like for a mom who is too poor to afford the surgery that can save her baby from a lifetime of suffering.”

Comedian & TV Host Howie Mandel: “I have spent my life trying to elicit smiles. There’s nothing more precious than the smile on a child’s face. This is one train ride well worth taking. I can’t thank you enough for letting me be part of this organization’s priceless achievements.”

Gen. Colin Powell: “By helping the children of the poorest people living in the world’s poorest places, Smile Train is showing the world what America is truly all about.”