I had the opportunity to go on my first cleft mission trip with Free to Smile (FTS) Foundation prior to starting my fellowship in Cleft and Craniofacial surgery. I enjoyed every min of this opportunity. Everything was so well-organized by FTS making the travel and experience absolutely memorable. I enjoyed meeting other volunteers through this trip and had an amazing time learning from all the surgeons and their experiences. The camaraderie between FTS and the hosting organization (Tess Unlimited) was truly a reflection of keeping patient care a priority and striving for excellence in providing these life changing surgeries for these beautiful children. I am again very grateful to the organization for letting me be part of the trip, and I hope to return with them on many other future mission trips!
My time is my most valuable commodity. I can think of nothing I enjoy more than spending quality time with family and friends creating memories I will have for the rest of my life. That being said, for 3-4 weeks each year I travel abroad to provide anesthesia for children in need. I have worked with a number of organizations, all of which I thought were very productive. Ultimately I found a home with Free to Smile. Free to Smile and their partners work tirelessly to provide the best care available for children with cleft lips and palates. FTS allows me to utilize my talents to give families in need an improved quality of life, and children with clefts the chance to lead a normal life.
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I have volunteered on every surgical trip Free to Smile has organized since 2013. Our goal on each of these trips has been to provide excellent medical care for children in need. Each of these children deserves the best chance at a happy, fulfilling life. Our incredible volunteers come together under challenging conditions to make this happen. I feel lucky to have found Free to Smile, and I am honored to donate my time, skills and dollars to help Free to Smile provide care for these children.
It's hard to even put into words how incredible Free To Smile Foundation is. The Foundation makes several mission trips throughout the year to countries including Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Niger among others.
I was able to go on the most recent mission trip to Guatemala with my daughter, and it was truly life changing. Our team successfully provided 49 surgeries and 224 procedures to children in need in just one mission trip!
I'm beyond grateful to be part of this organization. Thank you FTS for all the good you do in this world.
Free to Smile Foundation has changed the lives of thousands of children living in impoverished worlds. Thus giving them a chance in life and building their self esteem. The volunteers for FTS are top notch and give 120% rather on a mission or helping here close to home. Our organization runs on the principles of care and compassion for those living in a less fortunate world.
Free to Smile helps children around the world in underserved areas with cleft lip and palate repair surgeries. You can learn that in 5 seconds on their website. What you can't ever discern from a website is the visceral, heart-filling experience of watching a parent see their baby for the first time after surgery... see them lay eyes on their sweet baby smile a healed smile. They dream with their whole hearts for the world to see their children as they see them: beautiful, whole, lovely. With Free to Smile's help, the surgery can help the world see what the parents see. And it's about so much more than appearance. With the surgeries, children have improved speech, nutrition, educational opportunity, social experiences, job opportunities, etc. Free to Smile's work has changed thousands of lives, including mine. Thank you, Free to Smile!
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I volunteered with Free to Smile in February, 2014 as a translator in Guatemala. What an amazing experience and organization. Free to Smile was well organized, communicated well, and took great care of patients, families, and volunteers. Being able to help the children and their families was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Thank you Free to Smile for your work and for allowing me to be a small part of it!
My wife, son and I have been on a mission trip to see what impact this organization has on children and were truly amazed...thank God for these folks!...they were kind and were able to help many needy children...this is one of the many reasons I continue to support Free to Smile
Foundation, Inc. (Jim Boltz)
I have the pleasure of volunteering with free to smile three to four times a year. It is a testament to the organization that we routinely have return volunteers who actively recruit new volunteers to further our mission. Byron and Stacy Henry, our founders, continue to show the same level of passion for helping the children of Latin America and African countries that they showed when the organization was initially founded. Every mission is meticulously planned and all volunteers are highly qualified for the position the will fulfill. I look forward to continuing to watch Free to Smile grow.
Where should I begin?????
As Co-Founder, Executive Director and a Board Member, it is obvious that I am passionate about our organization and our cause!! Entering our sixth year as a non-profit providing FREE cleft lip and cleft plate surgery and dental care to the impoverished, Free to Smile has been able to change the lives of 400 cleft children and 2,500 dental patients. We have taken nearly 350 volunteers on missions and worked with numerous others here locally. All of our volunteers are extremely invested in FTS as well. Each of them pay for their own airfare and their in country fees associated with each trip. There are no free rides which genuinely tells us that these volunteers REALLY want to be there and to help those FTS patients around the world! If you were to ask any of our volunteers, I think they would tell you Free to Smile is like a family-- that after spending a mission together there is a bond like no other. To me that is pretty special and that is why our volunteers return year after year for more missions or to help in other ways!
Free to Smile has been greatly supported by all private donations and grants. We receive nearly all our medical and dental supplies through donations from companies and other non-profits disbursing such supplies. This allows a donors money to truly help children and NOT to pay for large office buildings and grand overhead expenses. To us, this makes Free to Smile special!