Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expanding Access to Care

To ensure that every child has access to care close to home, we equip the providers within our patients’ communities with skills and resources to deliver high quality care. We build the needed capacity by harnessing the talent and resources that exist within the country, usually in the bigger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where most patients lack access to care.​

Operation Smile has hubs in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. ​

In the DRC, 90% of patients who arrive at Operation Smile programs travel more than 12 hours to receive care due to the country’s poor road systems. To address this, Operation Smile has established a roaming comprehensive care program to bring care to patients unable to reach it otherwise.

Five-Year Vision

Over the next five years, Operation Smile will provide comprehensive cleft care to over 7,000 patients across six regions. This effort will include the participation of two hubs and four spokes with the aid of two referral hospital partners, while simultaneously strengthening the health system to ensure sustainable progress across four new provinces in the country.​

Through a blend of short-term surgical programs and hospital-based partnerships, we will provide cleft surgery to almost 2,500 patients.​

Operation Smile will create centers of excellence in training and surgical and comprehensive cleft care at hub hospitals in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. Our training programs will dramatically increase the number of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and other medical professionals working in the country.

Our Partners

Operation Smile works closely with the Ministry of Health and the National Program of Nutrition, PRONANUT.​

Food and Nutrition for Life of Vulnerables, FONLIV, is Operation Smile’s nutrition partner in the DRC. CELORE (Centre de Logopédie la Rencontre) is Operation Smile’s speech partner.​

We partner with leading academic institutions in the DRC, including the University of Kinshasa and the University of Lubumbashi. On a regional level, Operation Smile partners with the University of Cape Town to provide educational exchanges between students in the DRC and South Africa.