Blanca and Selvin met in their youth as involved members of a church in Montúfar, Guatemala. Long conversations between them after church led to the exchange of love letters and, eventually, to marriage and children.
Rosa and her husband were living and working on a finca (ranch) in rural Colombia, taking care of a local landowner’s cows, when their first son Oscar was unexpectedly born with a cleft lip.
Lourdes was born in Yaruqui, Ecuador with a cleft lip and a rare condition in which skin was formed over her nostrils. Lourdes received six reconstructive surgeries when she was young, but the treatments stopped prematurely when her parents’ insurance company stopped covering her care.
In 2017, Estefani and Gabriel were a young couple living with Estefani’s mother, Erika, in a rural area of Panama surrounded by rainforest. When the couple learned they were having a child, they were thrilled, but they also worried about whether they would be able to financially support an infant.
When it came time to choose a medical school, Andrea Astudillo of Cuenca, Ecuador joined her older brother, Cristian Astudillo Carrera, at a teaching hospital in Guadalajara, Mexico.
When Cristina learned her son would have a cleft, she sought comfort and support, but found none, even from the local community. Until she met Dr. Dávalos. In the 10 years since, they've changed what it means to have a cleft in Ecuador, together.
Wendy was 17, single, and scared. She had just had a baby with a cleft, and any help seemed far, far away from her family's ranch in the remote Andes highlands. But Smile Train was there.