Description
| - Smile Train is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City with the mission of providing free corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palate in about 80 developing countries. Co-founded in 1999 by Brian Mullaney and Charles Wang Smile Train focuses on providing free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals. By March 2008, Smile Train had performed more than 280,000 cleft surgeries in 74 countries, raising $84 million with a staff of 30 people. By 2009, when the organization celebrated its tenth year, it had assisted over 500,000 children.
While such deformities are less common in developed nations, where they are generally corrected through surgery in a child's first year, children with unrepaired clefts in poorer countries often do not receive surgery. As a result, they cannot eat or speak properly, are not allowed to attend school or hold a job and lead desperate lives of shame and isolation. Born with these defects, infants in...
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