Making a Difference Together: 6 Things That Make Us Smile

Celebrating World Smile Day

A smile can begin with many things: a family’s love, a friend’s encouragement, a healthcare worker’s dedication, a community coming together or a simple act of kindness.

At Operation Smile, we see those moments every day. For nearly 45 years, we’ve worked alongside patients, families, healthcare providers, volunteers, students, partners and supporters across 37 countries to expand access to safe surgery and comprehensive cleft care while creating moments of connection and possibility.

This World Smile Day, we’re celebrating some of the people and moments that make us smile. From bringing care closer to home to sharing knowledge, giving back to our communities, and inspiring the next generation, these stories show what can happen when we act together.

1. Bringing Care Within Reach

For families living far from specialized healthcare, getting the care a child needs can take time, money and determination.

In Guatemala’s Petén region, Operation Smile is working with local communities and healthcare providers to bring comprehensive cleft care closer to where families live. Through Operation 100, we’re strengthening local hospitals, supporting healthcare workers and building the capacity to provide care closer to home.

For families in Petén, that can mean fewer barriers and more opportunities to receive care surrounded by the people and communities they know. Through investing in local healthcare teams and infrastructure, communities can strengthen their ability to provide safe, quality care for years to come.

When care comes closer to home, more smiles are within reach.

2. Caring For Others

Sometimes, making a difference starts with a song, a reassuring conversation or simply being there.

Florence Mangula, affectionately known as “Mama Africa,” has spent more than 30 years volunteering with Operation Smile as a nurse, educator and mentor. Even after retirement, she continues caring for patients and families in Kenya and sharing her experience with other healthcare professionals.

Florence has a gift for helping worried parents feel more at ease and soothing children when they are nervous or afraid, offering thoughtful words and comfort.

The care she gives continues beyond the patient served, mentoring nurses and sharing the knowledge she gained throughout her career. Her impact can be felt in those small moments of connection—and in the nurses she continues to inspire.

3. Giving Back

Sometimes, receiving care is just the beginning of a much bigger journey. Abril knows this firsthand. After receiving cleft surgery and speech therapy in Puebla, Mexico, she continued building confidence and pursuing her own future. Along the way, she found new ways to support others who were beginning their own care journeys.

Today, Abril volunteers with Operation Smile Mexico while studying nursing. Her experience as a patient helps her understand what families may be feeling when they arrive for care. Now, she can offer some of the same welcome and encouragement she once received.

Her story shows how one moment of care can lead to another. A patient can become a volunteer, and a personal experience can inspire a career helping others.

4. Inspiring Future Leaders

One person’s encouragement can help another person see what is possible. In Ethiopia, Fetiya Awol, M.D., has built a career across clinical care, education and health leadership. Through her work with Operation Smile, she has helped strengthen surgeons and multidisciplinary teams while supporting the development of comprehensive cleft care.

Her work also extends to mentorship. Through Operation Smile’s Women in Medicine initiative, Fetiya supports emerging women leaders in healthcare, encouraging them to build their skills and find their own voices as leaders.

Her own path was shaped by seeing women serve as clinical and surgical leaders during her medical training. Now, she is helping create that same sense of possibility for others.

5. Passing It On

For Nicolas Sierra, volunteering with Operation Smile started with watching his father give his time and expertise.

Growing up in Bogotá, Colombia, Nicolas saw his father, Dr. Plinio Sierra, volunteer with Operation Smile for more than 30 years. That example eventually inspired Nicolas to become a student volunteer himself, beginning a journey that led him to become a cleft surgeon and educator.

Nicolas helps train other healthcare professionals and shares the knowledge he has gained through years of experience. What began with watching his father volunteer has become his own opportunity to give back and help prepare the next generation of surgeons.

A father’s commitment became a son’s calling. Sometimes, making a difference means passing along what someone once shared with you.

6. Connecting Across Generations

Some connections can last a lifetime—and sometimes, they connect one generation to the next.

For Miguel, cleft care is personal. Born with a cleft condition himself, he understands some of the experiences and challenges that can come with seeking care. Years later, his daughter Margaret began her own journey with a cleft condition, receiving comprehensive care and support.

Their shared experience created a unique connection between father and daughter. Miguel could understand parts of Margaret’s journey in a way few others could, while Margaret had access to care that could help her move forward with confidence.

For Miguel, watching his daughter receive care meant seeing possibilities that were not as accessible during his own childhood. Their shared experience also gave him a unique understanding of her journey and a chance to support her along the way.

Sometimes, what makes us smile is knowing that someone we love has a chance to walk a brighter path.

Smiles Are Within Reach When We Act Together

Behind every new smile is a person, a family, a healthcare provider, a volunteer, a mentor or a community helping make that moment possible. Sometimes it can mean bringing care closer to home, while other times it can look like a nurse comforting a child, a mentor encouraging a future healthcare leader, a son following in his father’s footsteps, or former patient finding a new way to give back.

Together, these moments remind us that smiles can begin with care, connection, and the people who choose to show up for one another. What makes you smile?