2015 Impact Report Letter from Our Co-Founders
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2015 IMPACT REPORT LETTER FROM OUR CO-FOUNDERS Over the course of 33 years, Operation Smile has provided life-changing surgery to hundreds of thousands of children, expanded our reach to include permanent cleft care centers, and changed the landscape of health care in countries where we work by training and educating local professionals and advocating for safe surgical care. Through three decades of experience, Operation Smile has gained insight into the world FOR TOO MANY FAMILIES of the patients we serve. These families give us the incredible privilege to learn their AROUND THE WORLD, stories and listen to their needs. Their stories keep us going. The mother in Morocco who was told to throw away her baby, the boy in Vietnam who has never gone to school SAFE SURGERY IS NOT because of tormentors, or the woman in Ethiopia who came to a medical mission and saw AN OPTION. all the children and told us, “I want each of them to be helped before me. I don’t want them to live like I have lived.” Surgery as we know it is not available in the greater majority of our world. Only 4 AT OPERATION SMILE, WE percent of surgical procedures performed each year go to the poorest third of the global BELIEVE EVERY CHILD population.1 Billions lack access to surgery.2 Hearing those facts is one thing, addressing the staggering need is another. At Operation Smile, we have a responsibility to reach as DESERVES EXCEPTIONAL many patients as we can with the highest quality of care possible. But our responsibility SURGICAL CARE. doesn’t stop there. We also have to make significant contributions to identify and break down barriers to surgical care. For Operation Smile, 2015 marked not only a continued commitment to providing quality care to children around the world, but also a renewed Watch why we’re compelled to investment into finding the patients who are hardest to reach in the most remote regions. deliver safe surgery: operationsmile.org/vision Together, with help from supporters like you, we will continue our commitment to heal children, change lives and transform families around the world. With our deepest gratitude, Dr. William Magee, Jr., Operation Smile Co-Founder and CEO Kathy Magee, Operation Smile Co-Founder and President OPERATION SMILE • 2015 IMPACT REPORT • 2015 HIGHLIGHTS 2015 HIGHLIGHTS 161 15,000+ 100,000+ Operation Smile is the largest volunteer- MEDICAL MISSIONS SURGERIES SPECIALTY MEDICAL based medical charity providing cleft Our medical volunteers conducted 161 Operation Smile programs provided INTERACTIONS surgeries and related care for patients in medical missions across 112 sites in more than 15,000 surgeries to patients low- and middle-income countries.3 We At our care centers around the world, 29 countries. We expanded programs worldwide. As a leader in the delivery believe every child deserves exceptional Operation Smile provided more than into 27 new medical sites including of high-quality surgical care, we’ve care. That’s what drives each and every 100,000 specialty medical interactions. Dakhla, Morocco; Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar; been committed to increasing access to one of us. The children we treat are at Operation Smile recognizes that the Juigalpa, Nicaragua; and Cape Coast, surgical services for more than the heart of everything we do. need for care doesn’t stop when a Ghana. Patients experience many three decades. medical mission ends. So wherever obstacles to receiving the care they possible, we’ve established centers need. They may not know a solution Each year, we conduct medical missions to ensure we can continue year-round exists or they simply may not have in locations around the world, and every care for patients. In countries without access to hospitals or health care one of those locations is unique. In centers, we have local staff, medical providers in their region. some places, we have to import medical leadership and other partners who are equipment. In some places, we have to available to support our patients. import medical expertise. But in every location, Operation Smile works with local health providers to deliver care. Ultimately, our patients are a testament to the importance of safe, well-timed surgical care. OPERATION SMILE • 2015 IMPACT REPORT • 2015 HIGHLIGHTS 3,000+ 73% 364,932 MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME VOLUNTEER HOURS More than 3,000 health professionals COUNTRY VOLUNTEERS Medical volunteers representing 63 volunteered with Operation Smile to countries donated 364,932 hours. The 73% of medical professionals who care for our patients as part of our estimated value of that time is $28 volunteered with Operation Smile extensive medical team. About 1,000 million USD. The heart, time and talent come from low- and middle-income of these volunteers went on more they give is immeasurable. By joining countries. Our medical leadership teams than one medical mission. Without our together with other medical volunteers design and deliver hands-on education network of thousands of credentialed from different countries and varying programs to train thousands of local medical volunteers and passionate levels of expertise and specialties, this medical professionals, so they can non-medical volunteers, we couldn’t global network provides our patients become better health care workers do what we do to heal children and with the highest quality of surgical care. and provide treatment within their own families around the world. communities and share their expertise. Learn more about Dr. Mrdami Wafaa, an Operation Smile volunteer plastic surgeon from Morocco: operationsmile.org/wafaa OPERATION SMILE • 2015 IMPACT REPORT • 2015 HIGHLIGHTS 1,559 17,000+ 131,753 LIFE-SAVING DENTAL PROCEDURES POUNDS OF CARGO AHA CERTIFICATIONS Operation Smile performed more than With the help of generous corporate 17,000 dental procedures last year at our partners, Operation Smile packed and We provided 1,559 life-saving American centers as well as local and international shipped 464 pallets of cargo, weighing Heart Association (AHA) certifications dental missions. Operation Smile provides more than 65 tons and worth more than that improve patient safety in the field. dental services to patients in order to $7.7 million USD in support of all of our Since its inception, Operation Smile ensure comprehensive oral care as part of medical programs around the world. has invested in education and training. treatment plans tailored to patients need. It remains at the heart of everything In some regions of the world where we we do, as we seek to influence health work, there aren’t enough hospitals to care systems in low- and middle-income take care of the children and families countries and promote standards of care. who need surgery. Where there are hospitals, sometimes they don’t have the basic necessities to carry out Learn more about how our AHA training successful surgery — equipment like has impacted programs in Panama: oxygen monitors and anesthesia units. operationsmile.org/panama There might not be any antibiotics or pain medication, and even essentials like sanitary masks, gloves and gowns are sometimes unavailable. As part of our Global Standards of Care, we make sure we have specific equipment and medications to enable the delivery of the safest surgery and outcomes. OPERATION SMILE • 2015 IMPACT REPORT • NEWS BRIEF MORE THAN A MEDICAL MISSION At Operation Smile, we believe no ONGOING CARE IN COLOMBIA YEAR-ROUND CARE IN MOROCCO parent should have to live in a world where they worry about the future of At Gilberto Mariño Contreras Centro In Morocco, the Operation Smile Care their child’s health or have to tell their de Atención Integral, our year-round Center in Casablanca provides year- child there’s no help. For more than Operation Smile cleft center in round medical and dental care to three decades, we’ve brought hope Bogotá, Colombia, patients receive children who have previously had cleft to families by providing them with the comprehensive care, which includes lip and cleft palate surgery. In May highest quality surgical care. But we dental work, speech therapy, nutrition, 2015, a team of 35 medical volunteers don’t stop at surgery. psychology, parental workshops, provided dental procedures to 1,241 FOR MORE THAN THREE DECADES, genetics studies, social work, audiology, patients during the dental mission in WE’VE BROUGHT HOPE TO Cleft treatment goes beyond surgery. orthodontics and much more. The Bouizakarne, Morocco. Over the last In older patients, who have been Bogotá center also provides year-round year, we have conducted nine dental FAMILIES BY PROVIDING THEM bullied and isolated, psychological medical evaluations and surgeries. For missions in Morocco. WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY care may be required for reintegration those families who don’t know their child into society. Patients who receive cleft has a cleft until birth, the center offers SURGICAL CARE. BUT WE DON’T palate surgery need speech therapy parental support from the moment they PLANS FOR THE FUTURE STOP AT SURGERY. to learn how to properly articulate bring in their baby. The center provides words and be understood. Dental and significant pre-surgery consultations Year-round centers are key to orthodontic care is often critical to help and care that result in successful addressing communities in need. patients with speech therapy. surgical outcomes. Family psychological Operation Smile will launch three more support is offered throughout the child’s centers — in Paraguay, Nicaragua and teen years until they no longer need Ecuador — in the coming year. assistance. More than 2,700 patients have received surgery at the center since opening in 2007. Currently, more than 1,500 patients receive ongoing care in Bogotá. OPERATION SMILE • 2015 IMPACT REPORT • NEWS BRIEF EMPOWERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES “Lack of plastic surgeons is a huge Operation Smile is invested not only in BUILDING MEDICAL CAPACITY problem here.