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… Opeyemi: Families, Like Smiles, Come in Many Forms Opeyemi: Families, Like Smiles, Come in Many Forms His father abandoned the family when he was born with a cleft. His mother never stopped trying to make him smile In Lagos, Nigeria, we caught up with Deborah, the mother of Smile Train patient Opeyemi, just after his …
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… All Aboard for Healthy Smiles All Aboard for Healthy Smiles With GSK, we're providing oral health training to support children with clefts. As anyone who has ever had a root … own specialized care. To increase awareness and education around oral health and clefts, FDI World Dental Federation and Smile Train, with support from GSK, developed and launched oral health guidelines for dental professionals and other …
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… Meet Nigeria's Sing and Smile Club Meet Nigeria's Sing and Smile Club So often, clefts cause speech issues that make children embarrassed to speak, even after surgery. Our … we're helping to rewrite that narrative and give children with clefts the confidence they deserve. In the Sing and Smile Club, our patients harness the power of song and music to find the confidence within not only to speak up, but to …
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… Changing Cleft Culture in Nigeria Changing Cleft Culture in Nigeria Dedicated Smile Train partners in Nigeria are taking to the streets to educate about clefts. It might have seemed strange for one … to treat. So they took action, and in 2011, organized the first Cleft Week in Nigeria alongside their longtime partner, Smile Train. Cleft Weeks are held by Smile Train partners around the world to let communities know that clefts are treatable trough safe and accessible …
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… Empowering Cleft Moms in Nigeria Empowering Cleft Moms in Nigeria First it was their children. Now, Smile Train partner GSI is giving cleft moms unimagined opportunity, too. Surgery is only the beginning. Smile Train and our partner Grassroot Smile Initiative are teaching mothers of children with clefts in Nigeria entrepreneurial skills so they can keep their …
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… dedicated her career to improving the lives of children with clefts across the country. She found a worthy partner in Smile Train. Professor Olugbemiga Ogunlewe was the first woman to become an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Nigeria and … at home rather than face community accusations — this isolation hurts the children psychologically,” she said. In 2007, Smile Train staff members traveled to Nigeria to hold lectures about cleft care. Luckily, Professor Ogunlewe was in the audience and she was impressed with Smile Train’s unique model. Professor Ogunlewe was especially excited that Smile Train cleft care grants would allow …
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… Thankfully, Juliana’s daughter gave her the number for the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), their local Smile Train partner, when Destiny was still a toddler. The specially trained staff there understands the link between … time singing, dancing, and smiling with friends. And so can countless other children with clefts. That’s the difference Smile Train’s sustainable model of empowering local medical professionals makes. That’s the difference Smile Train’s donors make. “Smile Train, I really appreciate and I thank God for [them], that God of Heaven will continue …
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… even violent harassment from peers and accusations of witchcraft from neighbors. Things have improved since 2007, when Smile Train first established partnerships with hospitals across the country to help provide top-quality cleft care to … communities, spreading the word that free, safe, lifelong care is available remains a challenge. This is why Smile Train and our local staff leave no stone unturned to connect every person with a cleft to all the care they need. … it right then. Oloye pushed play and saw children with clefts like her twins… but then their clefts healed into radiant smiles, and the video claimed that the surgeries that made it possible were free! The video ended with a toll-free number …
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… dreamed possible was available for free at nearby University College Hospital Ibadan thanks to their partnership with Smile Train. Far more than a surgery, it was fresh start at life — just in time for college. Free of her past, Susanna strode across campus with a confident smile. Susanna in speech therapy with Dr. Olusanya Still, surgery alone could not be enough to heal her. As a baby, … roof to her mouth, so having a closed palate now, after so many years, only made speaking more difficult. Here, again, Smile Train was there for her with free, ongoing speech therapy from Dr. A.A. Olusanya, a local expert specially trained …
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… surgery are even more so, leaving many babies with clefts unable to access lifesaving care. As fellows at the Grassroot Smile Initiative, a long-time Smile Train partner in the city of Kano known as a leader in comprehensive care, Drs. Farinyaro and Ehighibe are working … with increasing access to cleft care in Nigeria. Dr. Ehighibe wants to ensure that her country’s government and policymakers are investing in holistic cleft care. The Federal Ministry of Health recently joined with Smile Train and other …
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… and a nurse there said she had heard about an organization that could provide free treatment for him. She Googled local Smile Train partners and directed us to Grandville Medical and Laser Centre. Olanike speaking with Dr. Aranmolate Rasheed … as well help people the way he was helped. As I said, it is a sacred duty. I also want to say a very big thank you to Smile Train’s donors. I don't know them, but God knows them. I pray God will continue to bless them, favor them, and show …
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… not a problem. He knew a doctor named Onah who could perform the surgery at the National Orthopaedic Hospital. A local Smile Train partner “He works with Smile Train,” he said. At first, Ugwuoke was hesitant. She knew she wanted Immaculata to receive surgery, but she was … gather enough money for this surgery? However, her brother reassured her. The surgery would be sponsored entirely by Smile Train. Their family would not have to pay for anything. All they needed to do was to show up at Dr. Onah’s office. …