Words by Smiley Team
Smile Train does what it says on the tin: it puts smiles back on faces of people in more than 70 countries around the world.
The charity provides corrective surgery for children and adults with cleft lips and palates, and their work enables children to breathe, eat, and sleep better.
Ian Vallance, director of Smile Train UK, explains that a cleft is a gap or slip in the lip, or a hole in the roof of the mouth, formed in pregnancy. It affects one in 700 babies, he explains, and this includes those living in the UK.
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Those born with cleft might experience problems with their eating, speaking in later life, breathing, and even hearing.
In the UK, we have the NHS, so when a baby is born with cleft, it’s picked up during pregnancy scans. But for the countries that Smile Train works with, that hasn’t happened yet. For many, the only way to get cleft treated is to pay for it – and “many families just don’t have that option,” says Ian.
Smile Train provides surgery for free to thousands of people around the world. “We train our own medical staff and surgeons in the country that they’re in, so people are treated by people in their own communities,” says Ian. “Then there’s trust, a background, and that continuity of care.”
Often more than one surgery is required, as well as speech therapy, nutritional advice, and lots more. The charity provides the full package of care.
Watch the video above to find out more information, or visit the charity’s website, smiletrain.org.
