Thanks to Dr. Cuadros — and Smile Train — having a cleft on the Navajo reservations of New Mexico is no longer a sentence to a life of isolation and sickness.
Magaly is the mother of David, age five, a Smile Train patient in Quito, Ecuador. She shared with us her son’s journey to cleft care and what Smile Train has meant for her entire family.
It broke Dr. Meza's heart to see his patients with clefts struggle to eat, speak, sleep, or even feel good about themselves because of poor dental health. So he partnered with Smile Train to do something about it.
Everyone told Gyana to abandon her daughter when she was born with a cleft; her husband threatened to kill himself if she didn't. Afraid for both their lives, she took the child and fled.