The Smile Train

Smile Train is a charity that funds cleft surgeries around the world, and Mercy Ships is partnering with them in West Africa. We provide the doctors and nurses and the hospital in which the operations takes place, and Smile Train provides the finances. It's a win win all around.

Smile Train patients are one of the highlights of working on Mercy Ships. The transformation that takes place in a patient before and after cleft surgery is absolutely lovely.  It definitely helps that the majority of them are babies and small children - except for one gorgeous, tiny old lady who had her lip fixed last Friday after living with a face split wide for more than fifty years. She wasn't a child, but I hear she was still pretty cute.  I only wish I had a photo for you . . .