Global Smile Foundation

Cleft, an opening in the lip and/or palate, is one of the most common congenital birth defects in the world with an average occurrence of 1 in every 700 live births. Despite the high prevalence, there are not enough skilled providers to meet such an urgent need. Untreated or poorly treated cleft increases the risk of premature death, poor health, malnutrition, and poverty for a child and their entire family. Breaking this cycle is nearly impossible.

Global Smile Foundation (GSF) envisions a world where every child born with cleft lip/palate receives the highest quality comprehensive and long-term care they need to be healthy, attend school, and integrate into their communities.

Our mission is to improve the lives of patients born with cleft, empower cleft providers, and promote universal cleft care access in underserved areas.

GSF’s model incorporates three main goals:

1. Provide humanitarian cleft care services to children in underserved areas from birth to adulthood. We conduct 8 annual outreach programs led by highly skilled teams of volunteer cleft specialists.

2. Train cleft providers at our program sites to empower the development of year-round cleft centers and increase the availability of team-based, high quality cleft care.

3. Build long-term sustainable cleft care capacity on a global scale through our annual international workshop and research program.