From 2010, 1-year-old Jyotisman on the first day of screening at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in India. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Child life specialist Jennifer Kreimer with a patient in 2009 at the Hospital CFA, Casa Evangualista Juan Pablo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Sankor and his son Khokhon, both Operation Smile patients, photographed in India in 2005. Operation Smile has long been researching the possible causes of cleft conditions. The International Family Study has amassed the largest repository of genetic information relating to global cleft populations ever collected. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Research has shown there's a correlation between families cooking over an open flame and a higher prevalence of cleft conditions. Here, from the Philippines in 2014, 5-year-old Loraine watches her mother cook at their home on Bantayan Island. Photo: Jessica Brandi Lifland.

13-year-old Lan Shijun gets the final suture from surgeon Dr. Shu Maoguo at the Peoples Hospital of Dafang County in China in 2016. Photo: Zute Lightfoot.

A stack of medical records after a long day of surgeries in Barinas, Venezuela in 2002. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Issy and her mom wait with other families after learning they have been chosen to receive surgery at San Felipe Hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 2017. Photo: Rohanna Mertens.

Lisette at a surgical setup day in the Dominican Republic, 2010. Photo: Jessica Brandi Lifland.

After a 2010 surgery in India, a mother and healed child share a moment alone. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Recovery room nurse Sarah Snyder lets a patient play doctor in Guwahati, India, in 2010. Photo: Alan Hill.

From Ecuador in 2019, 5-month-old Amaia at a pre-op checkup in Quito. Photo: Lorenzo Monacelli.

Haytham, 7, has ointment applied to his stitches by his father Sayed after a 2007 surgery in Qena, Egypt. Photo: Tyler Barrick.

From 2012, Rainnier, 7, pictured at his home in Bacolod, Philippines, the day before he received a free Operation Smile surgery. His family lives off an income of $365 per month. Photo: Marc Ascher.

Samrawit and his mother Seble waiting for a 2019 appointment at the Jimma University Specialized Hospital in Jimma, Ethiopia, Photo: Jorgen Hildebrandt.

Operation Smile Co-Founder and President Kathy Magee with 6-month-old Mikaela in the Dominican Republic in 2012. Photo: Marc Ascher.

The surgeon in the middle of this Jordanian operating room is Dr. Bill Magee, the co-founder and CEO of Operation Smile. He was photographed in Amman in 2008. Photo: Marc Ascher.