About Us
Mission Statement
Throughout the world, Operation Smile volunteers repair childhood facial deformities while building public and private partnerships that advocate for sustainable healthcare systems for children and families. Together, we create smiles, change lives, heal humanity.
What is Operation Smile?Operation Smile International (OSI) is the mother organization in Norfolk, Virginia, headed by the co-founders Dr. William Magee, Jr. a prominent plastic surgeon in the U.S. and his nurse and social worker wife, Kathy.
Operation Smile Philippines Foundation is the local affiliate led by President Edith Yotoko-Villanueva, former Congresswoman, 3rd District, Negros Occidental.
Operation Smile is today the leading international humanitarian organization dedicated to providing free reconstructive surgery to indigent children and young adults with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.
It started in the Philippines with the first mission going to Naga City in 1982. It has been coming to the Philippines every year without fail ever since, with increasing efficiency and coverage. As of September 2003, the annual Operation Smile international missions, plus the local missions organized by Filipino surgical teams, have treated almost 14,000 indigent children in over 50 sites in the country.
After the initial success in the Philippines, Operation Smile began organizing chapters in the U.S. and at present sends medical missions to 21 developing countries, including the Philippines.
It is today the one single organization that is making an impact on the large number of Filipinos with facial deformities. In the last 21 years, of the 60,000 or so treated around the world, around 14,000 of them are in the Philippines, making this country the largest beneficiary.
Operation Smile is a truly international organization with Filipinos, Americans and volunteers from other countries participating, including some coming from China, Morocco, Russia, Israel, Brazil, Palestine, Venezuela, Colombia, Kenya, Vietnam, Australia, Italy, Canada, and England.
