Quick Facts

• Operation Smile’s humanitarian work helps children by correcting their facial deformities through the gift of medicine and surgery; a change that brings about a more positive life along with a healthier self-image.
  
  
• Since 1982, Operation Smile has treated more than 150,000 children in 51 countries, free of charge, while training thousands of medical professionals in the process and leaving behind necessary equipment to foster long-term self- sufficiency.
  
  
• Operation Smile has an active volunteer network of more than 5,000 highly trained medical professionals who donate their time and skills on an annual basis
  
  
• It costs around Rs 12,500/$ 240 USD and can take as little as 45 minutes to repair a child’s cleft lip and change their lives forever.
  
  
• Approximately 1 in every 700 Indian children is born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate with an estimated backlog of more than 1 million people living with untreated facial deformities.
  
  
• Children with facial deformities often have difficulty breathing, drinking, eating and speaking, which combined with their appearance leads to their social isolation and ridicule. The stigma attached to their deformity render them unable to live fulfilling lives as they are often not admitted to school, not allowed to play with other children and sometimes even forbidden from going outside.
  
  
• Since Operation Smile’s first mission to India in 2002, as of July 2011, volunteers have provided free medical evaluations to more than 12,000 patients and performed life-changing surgery on more than 7,700 children.
  
  
• Operation Smile India was established in 2003 as a registered Indian Trust and is governed by a local Board of Directors & Medical Advisory Council.