For someone born with a cleft, surgery can be life-changing — but it may be only one part of the care they need.
Smile Train works with local healthcare professionals around the world to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care while investing in the people, training, and resources communities need to provide care locally.
That can mean support with everything from nutrition and surgery to speech services, oral health, orthodontics, and psychosocial care.
Want to help make that care possible?
Here are 6 ways your donation to Smile Train can make a difference.
1. Help Provide Free Cleft Surgery
Safe surgery can be an important part of the cleft care journey.
Smile Train provides its local medical partners with funding, training, and resources to help make free cleft surgery accessible to patients around the world.
Rather than relying solely on visiting medical teams, Smile Train's model empowers healthcare professionals to provide treatment within their own communities.
Support: Free Cleft Treatment
2. Help Babies Access Feeding & Nutrition Support
For some babies born with clefts, feeding can be challenging.
That's why feeding and nutrition support can begin early and remain an important part of comprehensive cleft care.
Helping children receive appropriate nutritional support can also help prepare them for other stages of treatment.
Support: Feeding & Nutrition
3. Support Speech Services
The cleft care journey doesn't necessarily end after surgery.
Some patients may benefit from speech assessment and therapy as they grow, helping support speech and communication development.
Smile Train includes speech services as part of its comprehensive approach to cleft care.
Support: Speech & Communication
4. Help Provide Dental & Orthodontic Care
People born with clefts can require specialized oral healthcare throughout different stages of life.
Smile Train's comprehensive care approach can include oral health services and orthodontics, alongside other treatment recommended by multidisciplinary cleft teams.
Supporting Smile Train means helping make the wider care journey possible — not simply one procedure.
Support: Oral Health & Orthodontics
5. Help Train Local Healthcare Professionals
This is one of the most important parts of the Smile Train model.
Smile Train invests in local healthcare professionals, providing training and resources that help strengthen cleft care within their own communities.
That creates an impact that can extend beyond a single patient.
A trained healthcare professional can continue using their knowledge and skills to care for patients in their community for years to come.
Training → Local Expertise → More Care → Long-Term Impact
Support: Education & Medical Training
6. Support the Full Cleft Care Journey
Every person's cleft care journey is different.
Depending on individual needs, comprehensive care can involve multiple types of support over many years.
Nutrition → Surgery → Speech → Oral Health → Orthodontics → Ongoing Support
Your donation can help support the broader network of professionals, programs, training, and resources that makes this care possible.
Support: Comprehensive Cleft Care
One Donation Can Become Part of Something Bigger
A donation to Smile Train isn't only about supporting a single moment of care.
It can help local medical professionals provide treatment, help families access comprehensive cleft care, and strengthen healthcare capacity within communities.
That's what makes Smile Train's model different.
Care • Local Expertise • Treatment • Support • Brighter Futures
Help Make More Smiles Possible
Your support can help Smile Train and its local partners continue providing free cleft treatment and comprehensive care to people around the world.
Whether your donation helps support surgery, nutrition, speech services, oral healthcare, professional training, or another part of the cleft care journey, every contribution can become part of something much bigger.
Donate to Smile Train Today
Help give more people access to the cleft care and support they deserve.