Tegucigalpa, Honduras -  Operation Smile recently announced a historic breakthrough in cleft care for the country of Honduras. Medical volunteers and in-country personnel provided critical care and thousands of surgeries to eliminate the number of patients actively waiting for life-altering surgery.

Today – for the first time in the country’s history – any child born with a cleft lip or cleft palate in Honduras can now receive safe, effective and timely surgery to repair the life-threatening condition.

A Overwhelming Need —

In low and middle-income countries the lives of more than 100 million people hang in the balance. For people suffering from surgically-treatable conditions, like cleft lip and cleft palate, a single surgery can mean the difference between life and death.

Yet for 9 out of 10 people living in rural and impoverished areas, surgical care is often unavailable or  inaccessible due to lack of information, transportation, money, or medical professionals, equipment or adequate surgical facilities.

Every three minutes, another child is born with a cleft condition. Although this condition can be repaired with corrective surgery, many simply can’t access care they need. As many as 93 percent of children with unrepaired cleft conditions will die before their 20th birthdays. Those that survive must grapple with devastating and life-threatening effects such as social isolation, impaired speech, bullying, and physical abuse.

A Breakthrough in Honduras

Since 1997, Operation Smile Honduras has made significant strides towards increasing access to safe surgery and tackling the backlog of untreated patients through medical missions in cities across the country. It is recommended that babies born with cleft receive corrective surgery within the first two years of life for the best recovery results. However, many low- and middle-income countries, like Honduras, have a backlog due to the lack of access to safe, affordable and timely surgery. This leaves  children to suffer with their cleft condition for much longer.

In 2014, there were around 1,000 cleft cases remaining in the country and many of those potential patients were adults, teens and children. Together, with our in-country partners, we made a commitment to find them and end their needless suffering by making sure they receive the safe and effective surgery they deserve. 

As a result of a comprehensive strategy and innovative patient advocacy programs to reach some of the poorest and hardest-to-reach patients in the country, any child born with a cleft condition in Honduras can be connected to Operation Smile immediately to receive the care they need.

**Carlson, L.C., Stewart, B.T., Hatcher, K.W., Kabetu, C., VanderBurg, R., Magee Jr., W.P. A model of the unmet need for cleft lip and palate surgery in low- and middle-income countries. World Journal of Surgery. 2016

Innovative Approaches Lead to Milestone

Unique Partnerships: Partnering with Ingeniería Gerencial (IG) – a nationwide utility company located in Honduras - and the company’s network of more than 300 meter readers, Operation Smile visited each household with electricity in the country to spread awareness about Operation Smile and identify potential patients. Through this collaboration more than 600 patients were identified.

Localized support: The Accompaniment (or Acompañantes) Program, launched in 2014, established strong community based relationships throughout remote villages in Honduras to reach patients across the country still waiting for surgery. Acompañantes travel hours, sometimes days, to actively identify and engage with patients. Acompañantes are equipped with resources to address the psychosocial needs of patients and work to arrange logistics of accessing treatment, accompany patients to treatment, address concerns, and lend psychosocial support to patients and their families.

Effective Technology: Using innovative mapping technology, Operation Smile created a robust picture of areas where patients were located and helped identify logistical and cultural challenges these patients faced.

Sustainability and Infrastructure improvements: Operation Smile worked with in-country foundation and volunteers to renovate its care center in Tegucigalpa, where local medical volunteers offer year-round comprehensive cleft care including surgery, post-operative care, dental and orthodontics care, pediatric care, speech therapy, audiology, and psychology consultations.

The Road Ahead

As a global leader in the delivery of life-changing cleft surgery for more than 35 years, Operation Smile’s patient centered approaches continue to address the needs of patients to make strides toward a world where every child suffering from cleft lip or cleft palate receives exceptional surgical care.

Although efforts in Honduras are an incredible milestone, it’s estimated that at least a half-million people in the world are living with untreated cleft lip and cleft palate.

It takes as few as 45 minutes and as little as $240 to help provide surgery to a child with a cleft condition. With your support today, you can help provide life-changing surgeries and innovative solutions in 26 countries around the world this year, including Nicaragua, India, Ghana and the Philippines.