Smile Train is an international non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to provide free surgical treatments for children born with cleft lip and palate all over the world through more than 2000 partner hospitals.
Smile Train Cleft Centre, Peradeniya is the main cleft centre in Sri Lanka which provide free surgical treatments to children born with cleft lip and palate. The centre was established at the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya in 2002 in order to improve the safety and quality of standards of cleft reconstructive surgeries and overall care by providing financial, technical, and other support.
The service objectives of the centre are providing free surgical treatments and engaging in activities to improve the quality and standards of care of the patients with cleft lip and palate. This includes procurement of surgical and anaesthetic equipment, consumables, and training of the staff in management of patients with cleft lip and palate. The academic objectives of the centre are to promote scientific activities such as research, conferences, and publication in the field of cleft lip and palate. More than 4,000 cleft surgeries including revisions have been carried out from the inception of Smile Train Cleft Centre since 2002 to 2022 with an average of treatment for 200 patients per year.
Funds of Smile Train Cleft Centre are mainly utilized to purchase operation theatre equipment, anesthetic equipment, nutritional supplements, and special feeding bottles and to provide travelling allowances to the needy patients for their clinic visits. We also use funds for dissemination of knowledge with regards to the subject nationally and internationally.
In addition, we organize joint clinics for patients to meet the experts involved in various aspects of their management, entertaining programmes for children, workshops on cleft management involving invited international and national experts in the field of cleft lip and palate for OMF and plastic surgeons, conferences, out-reached programmes in places such as Colombo, Jaffna and Vavuniya for surgeries and patient education, and collaborative research studies.
Smile Train Cleft Centre, Peradeniya is the main cleft centre in Sri Lanka which provide free treatments to children born with cleft lip and palate. Since the establishment of the centre in 2002 at the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya we have gradually improved the safety and quality of standards of cleft reconstructive surgeries through the financial, technical and other support. We have carried out more than 4,000 cleft surgeries including revisions during last 20 years.
We have been able to purchase operation theatre equipment, anesthetic equipment, nutritional supplements, and special feeding bottles, as well as to provide travelling expenses for needy patients for their clinic visits. We also make use of the funds to disseminate knowledge pertaining to cleft lip and palate management nationally and internationally.
The centre also coordinate joint clinics inviting specialists of other sub specialties involved in total cleft care providing the opportunity to the patients of meeting the team under one roof. Moreover, entertainment programmes for children along with useful presents, coordinating surgical workshops for OMF and plastic surgeons inviting international and national resource personal in the field of cleft lip and palate, out-reached programmes in places such as Colombo, Jaffna and Vavuniya to conduct surgeries and to educate patients, conferences and collaborative research studies are some other functions of the centre.
It is with immense pleasure I declare that non of the team members claim the funds allocated for the members of the team from the Smile Train parent company and all that is saved for the benefit of the patients, training the care givers and development of the centre. I am happy to see the progress achieved by the Smile Train Cleft Centre over the past twenty years, particularly the standards of the services extended to the patients. I am confident that our centre provides best comprehensive care according to the international standards, while providing training in the field of cleft care. At the same time, we hope to enhance the research output to improve the safety and quality of standards in cleft care in Sri Lanka.
Prof. W. M. P. S. K. Wijekoon
Director
Smile Train Cleft Centre
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