Operation Smile Australia is a children's medical charity that performs safe, effective cleft lip, cleft palate and craniofacial surgery, and delivers postoperative and ongoing medical therapies to children in developing countries. Operation Smile Australia is a mobilised force of medical professionals that advocates for the importance of safe surgery in resource poor environments. We train local medical professionals in developing countries so more children in some of the poorest areas in the world can be treated. Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft. A child with a cleft has twice the odds of dying before their first birthday. Children with clefts who survive may have difficulty eating, speaking, hearing or breathing properly. In some places, they are shunned and rejected.