In Africa, Smile Train provides free cleft surgeries and comprehensive cleft care across 42, countries with 230 active partners and 390+ treatment centers. Since 2002, Smile Train’s local medical partners have provided more than 170,000 life-changing cleft surgeries across the continent.
IN AFRICA
- Two-year-old Zena, from Mozambique, was our milestone 100,000th patient in 2018.
- Our Comprehensive Cleft Care services include: psychosocial support, nutrition, surgery, speech therapy, orthodontics, ENT, and dental care.
- We elevate local medical capacity, raising the safety and quality of surgical and anesthesia care by offering curriculum-based educational scholarship programs, including multi-year courses in plastic surgery, pediatric surgery, a Post-Fellowship Cleft Certification, and the Anesthesia Fellowship and Pediatric Anesthesia Training in Africa (PATA). Our short-term courses include SAFE Paeds and SAFE Paeds Cleft.
- Smile Train is certified by the American Heart Association (AHA) as an international training center for Basic Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support.
- Our bespoke Nursing Care Saves Lives course, launched in East Africa in 2012, has trained 1,000+ nurses across the continent and beyond.
- Other trainings we offer include: cleft palate speech therapy, cleft orthodontics, nutrition training (through a curriculum developed in collaboration with SPOON Foundation), the Surgical Instrument Repair Technician Training, and the Central Sterilization Certification (via the Safe Surgery Initiative).
- We offer mentorships to journalists in healthcare reporting, and have instituted the Cleft Awareness Media (CAMA) Awards.
- We leverage strategic and innovative partnerships at the local and international levels to anchor advocacy, the capacity of our partners and programs to strengthen surgical systems, and research infrastructure on global health priorities and policy.
- Art Impact 4 Health with the World Health Organization (WHO), which brings art and culture to the medical environment and advances the UN goal of Universal Health Coverage.
- Kids Operating Room (KidsOR), to supply stateof-the-art pediatric surgery infrastructure and expertise across Africa, while deploying innovative renewable solar surgery solutions. Together, we have installed 40 pediatric operating theaters in more than 20 countries since 2020.
- Lifebox, for distributing pulse oximeters and capnography devices.
- Haleon Nigeria, for activating the Cleft Helpline in Nigeria (toll free line +2348007645364).
- Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health, for helping us implement a National Surgical Obstetric Anesthesia Nursing Plan (NSOANP) and establish the country’s first Cleft Registry.
- Ghana’s Ministry of Health, for partnering with us to establish a first-of-its-kind Cleft Leadership Center in Africa.
