Our Stories

For Andrea Meza, clefts are personal.

Building a sustainable, local foundation for success in our newest partner country.

Adriana is bringing nutrition education to cleft-affected families across Peru.

Adahara knew she was lucky to receive all the cleft treatment she needed from an early age. She's training to become a Smile Train partner because she knows not every child with a cleft is so lucky.

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.

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.

Nurse Celeste always tried to avoid working with the babies with clefts in her neonatal ward because she felt unable to meet their needs. Then her son was born with a cleft.

Dr. Echeverri founded FISULAB in the belief that all aspects of cleft care are equal.

Surgeon. Activist. Teacher. Woman.

For Evelyn Caserres-Nano, speech therapy is more than a job — it is a calling.

How one man built a legacy of smiles that will last for generations — on both sides of the operating table.