Venezuela

Expanding Access

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.

Our hub is based at our care center in Caracas, the capital and largest city of Venezuela.

Operation Smile also carries out surgical activities in the cities of Maracaibo and Barcelona. We also have weekly consultations in dental, speech therapist, nutrition and pediatrics in Maturin.

Five-Year Vision

Over the next five years, Operation Smile will provide surgeries for over 1,070 patients. In addition, we will deliver comprehensive cleft care consultations to approximately 2,500 patients. Operation Smile will provide education and training for medical professionals working in the fields of surgery, anesthesia, pediatrics, nursing, biomedical engineering, oral health and others. We deliver American Heart Association (AHA) courses to health workers across various specialties.

Our Partners

Operation Smile partners with two leading Venezuelan universities, Universidad Santa Marfa and Universidad Central, to provide our patients with high-quality oral health services. Both students and professors work together with us to increase access to oral health in Venezuela.