![Makiba holding a picture of herself before cleft surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2023-04/makiba-50.jpg?itok=-6n7kO-v)
History Did Not Repeat Itself with Makiba
In the shadow of unthinkable tragedy, Smile Train helped turn sorrow into hope
![Yohanes and his mother smiling and holding a picture of him before cleft surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2023-01/yohanes-50.jpg?itok=lP601sFF)
Never Sleep on Yohanes
More proof that nothing is stronger than a mother’s love
![A mother feeding her underweight baby with a cleft in Tanzania](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2022-10/ihme-cleft-malnutrition-study-smile-train-nutrition-support-50.jpg?itok=oDoQqvUm)
Smile Train-Commissioned Study Reveals Deadly Reality of Malnutrition and Clefts
![Dr. Bethel Ethiopia](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-10/oral-health-training-group%20%283%29.png?itok=U7-5uG3Q)
Untold Stories
In Ethiopia, Dr. Bethel and Smile Train are changing the narrative around malnutrition.
Sebastian: From Nine Days to Live to Chubby Baby
After Pamela's delivery, the nurses told her that her son, Sebastian, only had nine days to live. She was devastated. She didn’t know where to turn. Then she was referred to Smile Train's local partner, Fundacion Ninos que Rien.
![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.
![All the participants of Smile Train nutrition workshop](/sites/default/files/styles/1_column_470_x_305/public/2021-03/nutrition-workshop-burundi.jpg?itok=9jpGsSkB)
Training The Trainer
Health workers from Burundi attend a workshop so they can better teach others about the importance of cleft nutrition.