How Smile Train Is Navigating The Coronavirus Pandemic

As the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact families, health systems, schools and businesses worldwide, Smile Train’s top priority remains, as always, the safety and well-being of our beneficiaries, medical partners, friends, family, and global supporters.

With Smile Train’s sustainable model of empowering local medical professionals within their own communities, we are able to react quickly to unprecedented events like pandemics. Our nimble teams have adapted to constantly changing conditions. We’ve continued to temporarily postpone surgeries where advisable, but our work has not stopped. We are continuing to support our cleft teams based on their unique needs, and many of our local medical partners are still on the ground acting as invaluable resources to their communities. For example, in addition to distributing food, hand sanitizers, and face masks within their communities, our medical partners have been spending time teaching community members about the importance of handwashing and social distancing.

Safety is Smile Train’s first priority and as such, the organization has supported its global network of medical partners by investing more than $1M in the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and essential equipment, such as pulse oximeters and non-contact infrared thermometers, to empower partners to continue cleft care while protecting themselves and their patients against COVID-19. Smile Train has also provided continuing education for medical professionals through online training courses. In the Americas region, more than 400 medical professionals received timely training targeting key areas such as speech therapy, nutrition, orthopedics, surgery, and cleft research. The reception from Smile Train partners regarding these opportunities has been very positive and encouraging: “To have been able to have the opportunity to take the online workshop for writing and publishing articles was greatly useful. I am very grateful to Smile Train for giving us these types of tools that have such a practical use. The wonderful thing about belonging to the Smile Train family is that we never work alone. The team at Sonrisas desde el Corazon has especially felt accompanied during this complicated contingency. The invitation to this and other online workshops has helped reinforce our knowledge and to develop new opportunities to strengthen us as a team.”, Dra Leonorilda Alvarez, a Smile Train orthodontist from Mexico.

Where surgeries have been postponed, Smile Train has been providing ongoing comprehensive cleft care including nutrition, speech therapy and psychological support to patients. Many of our providers accomplish this by using telemedicine to remain in touch with their patients like never before, helping to care for them even while remaining socially distant. Through telemedicine, life-saving care, such as breastfeeding and nutritional guidance for mothers of babies born with clefts, have been able to continue. Smile Train’s medical partners have remotely treated thousands of cleft patients — providing vital guidance to families, assisting new patients awaiting surgery, and identifying and helping those in need of food and supplies. In the Americas region alone, more than 6,000 patients have benefitted from telemedicine treatment sessions from April - June, and these critical appointments continue.

As government restrictions begin to lift around the world, we are working with local partners to cautiously resume lifesaving, free cleft surgeries. Our treatment partners are developing safe surgery guidelines in line with local COVID-19 regulations and recommendations from our local, regional, and global Medical Advisory Councils and Board. Where possible, patients can now receive safe cleft surgeries that will enable them to live full and productive lives.

Another baby is born with a cleft every three minutes, even during a pandemic. While the needs of every region and medical partner are different, everyone who works with us at Smile Train shares an unwavering commitment to providing life-saving cleft treatment. Thanks to you, our passionate and caring supporters, Smile Train will be there to provide our patients and partners the care they need.

We are confident that we will emerge from this stronger and more connected than ever before.