About
When left untreated, having a cleft lip and/or cleft palate becomes life-threatening and a lifelong hardship. Child abandonment and even infanticide can occur when a family is unwilling or unable to raise a child with a cleft condition. Their child’s condition is sometimes viewed as an extra hardship in a life already filled with daily challenges like poverty and food insecurity.
Having a cleft condition can cause serious health issues if not corrected: difficulty speaking, language development, dental problems, ear infections and hearing loss, and difficulty eating and swallowing can lead to malnutrition and even starvation.
A gift to Operation Smile Canada in your will or estate plans is a miracle for children born with cleft conditions and other facial differences in the low- and middle-income countries where we work. You provide them with free, safe life-saving surgeries performed by volunteer medical professionals who treat every child like their own. In addition to surgery, your donation also provides patients complete comprehensive cleft care including dentistry, speech therapy, and psychological support.
Your gift forever transforms the lives of future generations of young people and their communities.
Our Impact
Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate. Annually, that is an estimated 175,200 children world-wide.
Infants born with cleft conditions have nine times the risk of dying within the first year of life.
But you can offer them hope.
With surgery, a child can have a brand-new, beautiful smile in as little as 45 minutes.
Read our latest Impact Report by clicking here.
