Kenya

Expanding Access to Care

To ensure that every child has access to care close to home, we equip the providers within our patients’ communities with skills and resources to deliver high quality care. We build the needed capacity by harnessing the talent and resources that exist within the country, usually in the bigger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where most patients lack access to care.​

In Kenya, the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi serves as a hub, providing year-round care for patients and training opportunities for health workers.​

Located in the Great Rift Valley, AIC Kijabe Hospital Central, Kiambu County, is a leading regional training facility. Operation Smile partners with AIC Kijabe to provide cleft care services and educational programs.

Operation Smile provides comprehensive cleft care at three hospital partners located in Mombasa, Meru and Kajiado.​

This year, we aim to establish a second hub at Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral and Research Hospital in Nairobi.

Three-Year Vision

Over the course of the next three years, Operation Smile will provide around 800 patients with surgery. We will also deliver consultations to over 2,000 patients​.

Operation Smile will coordinate surgical programs in Kenya, focusing on high-need counties. We will also continue to invest in the workforce, increasing the quantity and enhancing the skills of local medical providers. Specialized training, coupled with hands-on training and credentialing at short-term surgical programs, will support the growth of independent surgical teams at the spokes to build capacity to provide safe surgeries independently and reduce the need for patients to travel to Nairobi.​

Operation Smile will support the speech program at Kenyatta University Teaching Research and Referral Hospital and train surgeons through our partnership with the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). Operation Smile will provide education opportunities for pediatric anesthesiologists in collaboration with the University of Nairobi. We will establish teaching and training pathways, like the Cleft Surgery Training Program, for COSECSA fellows from Kenya and across the region. ​

We will utilize Kijabe’s simulation labs for anesthesia training, particularly for pediatric anesthesia, and grow training opportunities for CANECSA fellows.

Our Partners

Operation Smile works closely with local partners to bring care closer to patients’ homes. ​

Our collaboration with the Ministry of Health and country governments has allowed us to expand cleft care programs across the country.​

We partner with the Kenya Society of Anesthesiologists, the Association of the Physically Disabled in Kenya and the Kenya Pediatric Association. ​

We have joined forces with World Health Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists (WFSA) to increase training opportunities for anesthesia providers.​

Operation Smile also collaborates with the Christian Broadcasting Network and with the pharmaceutical company Cipla Limited.​