Mission Smile is one of the largest volunteer based Medical Charity in India dedicated to providing treatment to children born with clefts. We started this heartfelt journey in 2002 when we conducted its first mission to perform corrective surgery for cleft lips and cleft palates in children and young adults in Manipal. Mission Smile was established as a Registered Indian Trust in Delhi in 2003 wi
th offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Guwahati. Since its inception, Mission Smile has conducted free medical evaluations for over 71,000 children and provided free corrective surgeries to more than 40000 children. A pool of more than 7000 medical and non-medical volunteers globally donate their time and skills to us on an annual basis and create smiles! Taking it a step further, we also offer training and certification courses (American Heart Association approved) like Basic Life Support (BLS), Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). The happy outcome is a meeting of dual objectives – reaching out to those affected with facial deformities and helping to train thousands of medical professionals across the world. The birth rate in India for cleft deformities is a staggering 1 in every 700 infants (Impact India survey, 2002 and The Economic Times, January 2006). This means that about 35,000 children are born every year with cleft deformities (Frontline, February 2001) adding to the backlog of an estimated 1 million adults presently left untreated due to a lack of resources. Cleft lip and Cleft palate, especially in children go way beyond the realm of medical need. Apart from causing difficulties in breathing, eating and speaking, the greatest discomfort these children face is often cruel ridicule for their appearance and at times ostracization from society. In a country like India where a large portion of the rural population still believes in superstitions, people consider children with cleft lip deformity to be bad luck and some even consider them cursed. The stigma attached to their deformity causes affected children, who are otherwise completely healthy, to lead incomplete, fractured lives. They are often forbidden from attending school, playing with other children, being seen at social gatherings and some are even barred from leaving their homes. Our work is vital in addressing the sheer magnitude of this situation in India. While we have conducted more than 100+ highly successful missions in different parts of India. We operate pan India with our different delivery models
Apart from conducting missions, Mission Smile also has 1 fully functional Comprehensive Cleft Care Centres in Guwahati(Assam) and 8 other centres in India, where free cleft surgeries are performed all year round.
