![Cleft Awareness Month 2021 #cleftproud](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-07/cleft-awareness-month-cleft-proud-2021.jpg?itok=buw1bbZh)
What My Cleft Taught Me
In honor of Cleft Awareness Month 2021, Smile Train's Cleft Community Advisory Council presents real-life stories of growing up with a cleft or being the mom to a child with a cleft from people who have been there.
![Pam with Susie and a patient](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-05/pam-s-with-child-and-susie.jpg?itok=n3ThW6VW)
Pamela Sheeran on Smile Train’s Investment in Expanding Non-Surgical Cleft Care
![Smile Train patient Gianna after cleft lip and palate surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-03/covid-gianna-after-cleft-lip-palate-surgery.jpg?itok=UTeAm63j)
How Smile Train Kept Making Smiles Through COVID-19
While other cleft organizations’ operations were indefinitely suspended or severely cut back, Smile Train was able to keep moving.
![Dr. Luis Cuadros with a cleft lip and palate patient and his family on a New Mexico Navajo reservation.](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-02/cuadros-new-mexico-navajo-cleft-lip-cleft-palate-surgeries-with-patients_0.jpg?itok=h_bvdazb)
"It Is Possible": Celebrating Dr. Luis Cuadros
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.
Thank You For Giving Us Something To Smile About In 2020
Thanks to you, thousands of children will think of 2020 as the best year ever.
How an Ad For Smile Train Changed Andi's Life
This cleft advocate has been changing lives since she was seven.
Chelsea and Luca
When Chelsea learned Luca would be born with a cleft, she couldn't find a community to comfort her. So she started her own.
![Smile Train partner surgeons observe a cleft surgery.](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-03/model-of-empowerment-surgeons-observing-cleft-surgery-on-a-patient.jpg?itok=mobEDGQB)
The COVID-19 Surgical Patient Checklist
The COVID-19 Surgical Patient Checklist empowers surgical teams to stay safe while operating on COVID+, or suspected COVID+, patients.
Peggy and Katy
![A mother with her child after her cleft lip and palate surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-03/model-of-empowerment-mother-with-child-with-a-cleft-lip-cleft-palate.jpg?itok=6f2lXZDh)
A Model of Empowerment
It's past time to rethink the mission model of cleft care.
![bauru surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-01/bauru01.jpg?itok=TPbZdMlJ)
Smile Train's International Scholars 2018
Meet the future of global cleft surgery.