First World Cleft Awareness Day Achieves Breakthroughs

On Sunday, July 20, Smile Train celebrated the first-ever World Cleft Awareness Day — a first-of-its-kind occasion for amplifying the voices of the millions of cleft-affected people worldwide.

To celebrate, we’re taking you on a cross-continental tour of just a few of the ways Smile Train’s regional offices used this special day to raise awareness of clefts, advocate for the dignity of every face, and spread smiles throughout their communities.

As you travel the world with us, keep in mind that this was only year one. We’re already planning to go even bigger and change even more lives next year.

Middle East and North Africa

Six leading beauty influencers from Pakistan and three from Egypt took to their Instagram pages on World Cleft Awareness Day to spread the word that, left untreated, clefts cause serious issues eating, breathing, and speaking — and that another baby is born with a cleft every three minutes.

The nine Reels reached over 100,000 viewers. Their message that true beauty is in what you do, not how you look resonated deeply with their followers and even inspired many to share their personal stories.

Africa

For our partner Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya, one Cleft Awareness Day wasn’t enough. So they celebrated for three instead, giving 13 patients life-changing cleft surgeries.

The event was coordinated in collaboration with the Kenya Society of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgeons as part of the education and training initiatives Smile Train sponsors with the University of Nairobi.  

Each year, Smile Train’s scholarship program gives promising young medical students from across Africa the opportunity to attend the university’s Department of Plastic Surgery. This year’s class included scholars from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda, in addition to Kenya.

China

Smile Train China stretched the smiles out over an entire week, launching their World Cleft Awareness Day campaign at the 6th Cleft Speech Therapy Camp at Jiangsu Stomatological Hospital in Nanjing.

Under the theme “Understanding and Support, Hope and Care,” the five-day initiative focused on speech therapy and emotional support as essential parts of long-term rehabilitation.

Though people with clefts often feel overlooked or marginalized, by the end of the week, the campers were raising their voices with confidence and pride, ready to teach the world the stories behind their smiles.

Latin America

Mexico

Smile Train Mexico celebrated World Cleft Awareness Day with an exclusive event for local patients. It was organized by our local staff and Norma Mendez, a psychologist specializing in treating people with clefts and a Smile Train partner.

Sessions included games to help patients better understand the full cleft journey, a discussion focused on helping teens and their parents identify what their mutual needs are and what they are thankful for in one another, and an intimate panel where three patients aged 14-26 opened up about their experiences and their struggles.

A highlight was “7 Ideas from Google to Create Culture and Innovation,” a talk from Smile Train Ambassador and Head Independent Software Vendor at Google Mexico, Ernesto Gutiérrez, who is himself cleft-affected. In this candid presentation, he shared how he never let his cleft be an obstacle to achieving his goal of working at Google, and related his personal journey and philosophy to his company’s.

Colombia

Clínica Noel, our partner in Medellin, held an event for patients and their parents hosted by Paola Ruiz, Miss Quindío Universal 2025, who was born with a cleft.

The sessions focused on sharing stories, building community, and moving through the world with courage — a message that Paola reinforced in a powerful keynote on how she never let her cleft hold her back from pursuing her beauty queen dreams.