![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.
![Nijha Diggs wearing scrubs and holding a Smile Train sign before observing a free cleft surgery.](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-07/nijha-celebrates-in-smile-train-surgery-scrubs-in-kenya.jpg?itok=z8-u84V8)
How Nijha Makes the Stars Smile
Talking celebrities and staying grounded with Smile Train’s Senior Director of PR.
![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
![Training doctors to provide free cleft lip and palate surgery in Asuncion, Paraguay.](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-05/training-in-paraguay-for-free-cleft-lip-palate-surgery-in-asuncion.jpg?itok=wxWVIyks)
Smile Train’s Next Stop: Paraguay
Building a sustainable, local foundation for success in our newest partner country.
![Mathias Kiwanuka visits a child in Uganda wearing a New York Giants hat.](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-04/mathias-kiwanuka-in-uganda-with-child-in-bed-ny-giants-hat-cleft-surgery.jpg?itok=Dxia187H)
Super Bowl Champion, Activist, Smile Maker: An Interview with our Newest Board Member
Mathias Kiwanuka knows the true meaning of greatness.
![Sesnie hugging a boy after cleft lip and cleft palate surgery in Ethiopia](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-04/sesnie-hugging-cleft-lip-cleft-palate-patient-ethiopia.jpg?itok=UGvLse46)
"I Am Resilient!" Meet Smile Train's Program Manager for East Africa
A conversation with one of our heroes.
![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.
![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.
![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.