Dear friends,

As we reflect on 2020, the words of songwriter Robert Hunter ring true: “Once in a while, you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

Through the challenges of last year, Operation Smile accomplished many remarkable things - challenges that allowed us to become ever more creative and innovative in our approach. We know that our obstacles have become our opportunities.

The immense need for safe surgical care for people living with cleft lip and cleft palate kept us focused. We mobilized and pushed forward to continue our commitment to the children and the families that we serve. Our teams have also continued to work hard to support the fight against the pandemic. In this way, our challenges have become our strengths.

This display of commitment has fortified our relationships with governments and their ministries of health, as they have trusted Operation Smile to help them in their time of need. We have listened to the countries we serve and gone beyond the traditional scope of our service, funding food programs for families in need, sending millions of pieces of personal protective equipment to heath care workers, and providing patients with essential virtual speech therapy and psychosocial counseling. All of this will allow our patients to be healthy and ready for surgery as the pandemic subsides and it’s once again safe to be by their sides. Continuing to strengthen our relationships around the world is so important as we look forward to our 40th anniversary with a goal to greatly expand our impact.

Our dream is to create an equal opportunity for every child to receive extraordinary cleft care.

To reach more children and families, we will bring our expertise closer to their homes and into their communities. By working hand-in-glove with local health professionals in their hospitals, we can help bring world-class cleft surgery and comprehensive care to places where it hasn’t been before. This expansion is only possible with the support of our donors, volunteers, students, foundations, partners and staff by our side. We profoundly thank every one of you as we innovate and establish new ways to reach the children and families to whom we are so committed.

As Operation Smile’s Co-Founders, we have always believed in the power of children to unite people. Their intrinsic energy, paired with the reality of economic and health disparities beyond their control, opens countless doors and ensures the progress of Operation Smile. As we look ahead, we are excited to accompany you on this extraordinary journey, as we provide a renewed opportunity for so many beautiful families around our world, together.

All our best,

COVID-19 has changed the world in ways we couldn’t have imagined before it arrived. In March 2020, we decided to delay our programs for the months ahead to keep patients, families, volunteers, staff and their communities safe. More than 10,000 people scheduled for cleft surgery and dental care would have to wait longer for much-needed treatment.

Our hearts ached, but we were also inspired to act.

Many of our kind and courageous medical volunteers joined their colleagues on the front lines. Our teams created new opportunities for the virtual training and education of health workers around the world. And eventually – wherever possible – we continued providing life-saving cleft surgeries.

Amid pain and uncertainty, we united behind three words:

Caring never stops.

Our teams around the world proved just that.

As the pandemic challenged health workers everywhere, we knew that we still had a responsibility to help. With hospitals unable to meet the sudden demand, supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) were rapidly consumed as COVID-19 spread.

We quickly provided hospitals around the world with donations of millions of units of PPE including face masks, surgical gloves, face shields, goggles, hand sanitizer and more to protect front-line staff. Following the evidence as guided by medical experts and top scientists, our medical leadership bolstered our already-stringent infection protection standards to create the safest possible environments for our patients, families, volunteers and staff.

In our home community of Virginia Beach, Virginia, we also donated PPE to hospitals in our neighborhood. Across the United States, our student volunteers delivered thousands of meals and encouragement to front-line heroes.

Working with partner organizations, we helped distribute 168 oxygen concentrators and 200 pulse oximeters to hospitals across Africa, thereby improving intensive care units. We also delivered online life support training and educational seminars that helped health workers in low- and middle-income countries rise to the challenge.

At the same time, we kept the health and well-being of families affected by cleft lip and cleft palate close to our hearts.

Due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, many families struggled to feed their loved ones and protect themselves against the spread of the virus. Untreated cleft conditions can also put children at a higher risk of becoming sick. We knew we needed to reach as many families as we could.

Around the world, Operation Smile volunteers and staff rallied to help hard-hit communities. In Madagascar, our team put together packages of food, hand-washing supplies and washable masks and safely delivered them to families.

As we reflect on the lives we helped change before the pandemic, we realize that our legacy of healing led us to this moment. Once again, we’re providing surgery and in-person care while taking stringent measures to keep families safe. Hope is on the horizon. And we remain focused on what cleft care makes possible for children, helping them to better breathe, eat, speak and live with confidence.

We surround ourselves with highly skilled medical volunteers who are creating opportunities to educate, encourage and empower the next generation of advocacy-minded leaders.

However, women serving in medical roles in resource-limited environments can face obstacles as they pursue leadership positions. This inspired our first international medical mission comprised entirely of female volunteers: Women in Medicine: Inspiring a Generation.

“For me, being an instructor or teacher in this is extremely important because we need a generation to inherit this and inspire generations,” said Dr. Teresita Pannaci, volunteer dentist and instructor. “When I see this new generation that we're beginning to train, they're working, they understand what their role is, they are committed to the lives of patients."

As we continue navigating new ways to safeguard our care delivery, our local volunteers are reaching and serving patients and their families during this trying time, reinforcing just how vital our in-country teams are to the success of our organization.

For patients like Lexxi who lives in a very remote village and Pedro, whose family fled turmoil in Venezuela to Colombia in search of a better life, receiving surgery and ongoing care for their cleft conditions once seemed unimaginable. But through local missions in Colombia – programs that are run entirely by Colombian volunteers – hope prevails for these hardest-to-reach patients.

With more children like Pedro and Lexxi waiting for the day when safe and timely surgery changes their lives, local efforts in Colombia illustrate how we can provide essential care for patients closer to their communities in more places around the world.

Places like Durgapur, India.

Through patient outreach efforts at its Durgapur Cleft Center, the Operation Smile India local team addresses the need for safe cleft care in the surrounding districts and communities.

Though we remain committed to providing people with the cleft surgery they deserve, we’re also working toward a day when everyone can receive the safe, timely and effective care they need closer to their communities.

Financially supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation and in collaboration with ministries of health, NGO partners and local stakeholders, health workers, and hospitals, our Global Essential Surgery project addresses the root causes that prevent hospitals from treating more people living with conditions that can be healed by surgery. The project seeks to provide more training opportunities to improve the skills of health workers, revitalize critical infrastructure, and address barriers that prevent patients from seeking or reaching care.

At designated hospitals in Madagascar, Nicaragua and Vietnam, the project has trained more than 1,000 health workers, built new operating rooms, created safe surgery protocols and raised communities’ awareness of surgically treatable conditions that are now served at those hospitals.

Early results are promising: The number people receiving surgery at these partner hospitals has increased by more than 60% since the project began. More people are seeking care, hospitals are better able to meet this new demand, and both patients and care providers are thrilled with the results.

When challenges arise, our global community of student volunteers has repeatedly proven their commitment to advocating for the lives of children affected by cleft conditions.

“Who would’ve known 38 years ago when we got kids involved that we’d be where we are today,” said Operation Smile Co-Founder Dr. Bill Magee. “We need you now more than ever before.”

Even as the world confronted COVID-19, students across the U.S. and Latin America once again demonstrated their selfless spirit by delivering meals to hospital health care workers and families in need through the Serving Smiles project.

“Our students used their creativity and intuition to work together and be impactful,” said Brigette Magee Clifford, the founder of Operation Smile Student Programs. “They have always jumped in, especially when we need them most. We very much appreciate how much they continue to contribute to all that we do.”

We simply wouldn’t have been able to provide our patients with world-class care, improve health systems nor respond to the many challenges posed by the pandemic without the support of the many partners that make our work possible.

Operation Smile is truly a global family, and we rely on the passion and dedication of our partner country foundations that provide crucial funding for our programs around the world. Our teams in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom contributed $12,925,961, which is more than 12% of our total revenue.

In addition to establishing the Durgapur Cleft Center, Baxter International Foundation’s investment in our four care centers in India ensured over 1,750 patients and their families received free surgical and comprehensive treatments and covered their costs of lodging, transportation and meals while in our care in 2020.

Longtime corporate partner Stryker has supported a wide range of our training and education programs, including surgical training rotations in Rwanda that taught 33 general surgeons’ skills in reconstructive plastic surgery that they are now practicing in their communities.

Last year, the Smile with Lay’s campaign raised $1 million, bringing its three-year total to $3 million in donations. We were honored to have our Co-Founder and President Kathy Magee featured on her own “Smile Bag,” as well as volunteer Dr. Dane Hoang and student volunteer Brady Hishmeh.

We hold ourselves accountable to the trust you place in our work to improve health and dignity through safe, effective and timely surgery.

Committed to being the best steward of your gifts, we direct funds to programs that bring the highest standards of care to people living with cleft and other facial and dental conditions.

Most importantly, we pride ourselves on following the highest standards of accountability, effectiveness and efficiency.

As one of the largest volunteer-driven surgical organizations, Operation Smile celebrates the hundreds of employees around the world who work tirelessly to ensure that the organization continues to extend its impact. Our heartfelt gratitude also goes out to the families of employees and volunteers whose sacrifices make our life-changing work possible.