What We Do

In as little as 45 minutes, our medical volunteers restore dignity to a child and transform their life, forever. Since inception in Kenya in 1987, Operation Smile has provided free surgical treatment and related healthcare to more than 8.000 patients all over the country, yet the need in Kenya is still great. Operation Smile Mission in Kenya (OSMIK) is currently active in 6 sites across the country, i.e, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Meru, Lodwar and is looking at opening up Machakos as a site.

With a database of over 300 dedicated medical and non-medical Kenyan volunteers, OSMIK, in partnership with a host of corporate sponsors who support our cause, aims to change the lives of Kenyan’s suffering with facial abnormalities and to give them a chance to live a normal life.

Host Hospitals:

Operation Smile creates long-term, positive relationships with their host hospitals, management and staff. Operation Smile brings all of its own equipment, drugs, and consumables but asks the host hospital for the free usage of several rooms/areas, beds, and specific items which we detail in a hospital letter. We also encourage the participation of hospital staff and offer lectures and hands on training at the request of the hospital.

Building Sustainability Through Education:

Operation Smile is committed to the creation of training programs leading to the self-sustained treatment of cleft lip and cleft palate pathologies in Kenya.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, OSMIK has provided free Basic Life Support (BLS) training to over 500 medical providers and the more advanced PALS/ACLS courses to nearly 60 providers in over 5 locations throughout the country.

With almost 300 highly trained nurses and doctors, OSMIK is proud to have one of the larger medical volunteer groups within Operation Smile. These devoted Kenyan volunteers routinely travel around the globe with Operation Smile to provide free surgery to children with facial abnormalities.

Operation Smile is hoping to involve more and more of the local community to build local ownership and to create sustainable change within the medical sector.

Medical Missions:

The missions consist of two full days of screening where each child is seen by each specialty followed by five days of surgery where anywhere from 120-150 patients will receive surgery. This is conducted by a large multi-disciplinary team of 50 medical and non-medical volunteers. A small post-operative team stays behind to assess the patients the following week and a team comes back every 6 months to assess the follow up needs of the patients including additional surgery, speech therapy, and dental care.

Read more about our Missions and Mission Reports

Check the Mission Schedule

Pre-register for a Mission

Become a Volunteer

Saturday Clinic Program in Nairobi:

Saturday Clinics have been running at Kenyatta National Hospital since 2003, and in this time has treated over 300 children suffering from cleft lips and palates.

The program runs twice every non – mission month. Check the mission schedule to know when the next Saturday Clinic will take place.

Read more about the Saturday Clinics.