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.
Aunt Rebecca did not trust that her sister would provide Samson with the special care he needed. So, she brought him back to the place he was born, the tiny-two room house he now shared with 13 relatives, all female.
Ayubu's classmates harassed him relentlessly for years because of a local myth about clefts. When he was 10 years old, his mother heard there was hope at a hospital less than an hour away.
Kamse was excited for his first day of school, but, when the day finally came, he was taunted all day long. Kamse ran home and begged his grandfather never to make him go back.
Nigeria's first female oral surgeon has dedicated her career to improving the lives of children with clefts across the country. She found a worthy partner in Smile Train.
During the 2014 Ebola Crisis, Dr. Jerry Brown reshaped the landscape of healthcare in Liberia, landing him on the cover of Time as their Person of the Year. Now, with Smile Train's help, he plans to do the same for cleft surgery.
A stranger pointed Natsir to the Smile Train partner hospital that saved his sons' lives. He has devoted his life since to paying the kindness forward to help other families in need.