Our Approach

Smile Train partners with local healthcare workers to provide cleft treatments 365 days a year on five continents.

A surgeon in Bangladesh holds a child with cleft

Sustainable Model

Our unique "teach a man to fish" model focuses on training local professionals to provide world-class cleft care in their own communities. Those professionals then go on to train others, creating a sustainable system for long-term care.

Links to Our Approach

Our Model

Smile Train is the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, with a sustainable and local model of supporting surgery and other forms of essential care.

Services

Children with clefts need more than just surgery. They may also need nutritional support, dental care, orthodontic treatment, speech therapy, and more.

Where We Work

We support our partners to provide 100%-free cleft treatment to children around the world.

Our Impact at a Glance

2,100+

empowered medical professionals

1.5M+

Smile Train-supported cleft surgeries since 1999

1,100+

partner hospitals

30,000+

Smile Train-supported cleft training opportunities

90+

countries where Smile Train has helped children
A child with cleft from Laos

Why Clefts?

Learn more about clefts and why we chose this issue.