World Cleft Awareness Day (WCAD), observed globally on July 20, was introduced by Smile Train in 2025 to bring cleft lip and palate into mainstream public health conversations and ensure every child born with a cleft has access to timely, comprehensive treatment. This year, Smile Train India, the country’s leading cleft-focused NGO, celebrates a proud milestone: over 800,000 free cleft surgeries supported for children across the country since 2000. Building on this achievement, the organisation is now turning its attention to the next frontier of impact, raising awareness so that every child born with a cleft is identified early and given the chance to thrive.
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World Cleft Awareness Day, Smile Train India Marks 800,000+ Free Surgeries
Nearly 35,000 children are born with clefts in India every year, yet many miss the critical window for treatment due to myths, misinformation, and stigma. Delayed care can lead to feeding difficulties, malnutrition, speech and hearing impairment, and long-term social and emotional challenges. Early diagnosis and timely surgery are key to better outcomes and access to comprehensive care. World Cleft Awareness Day seeks to raise awareness, dispel misconceptions, and ensure every child born with a cleft receives timely treatment.
Smile Train India treats surgery as one part of a larger picture. Its holistic model includes nutritional support, speech therapy, and orthodontic treatment, helping children thrive fully in life. Underpinning this is a sustainability-first strategy: Smile Train India trains and empowers local surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, and multidisciplinary cleft teams to deliver care locally. By strengthening partner hospitals, the organisation ensures children can access high-quality, free cleft care close to home, while building healthcare capacity that outlasts any single intervention.
This year’s awareness push has drawn wide-ranging support, with partners, donors, ambassadors, cleft affected individuals and families, well-wishers, and the broader community coming together to mark WCAD, many taking to social media and other platforms to share their voices and extend the conversation beyond the medical community and into everyday households.
“We’ve made real progress expanding access to treatment, but awareness remains our toughest battle,” said Mamta Carroll, Senior Vice President and Regional Director – Asia, Smile Train. “Every day, children arrive at our doors months or even years later than they should have — not because treatment wasn’t there, but because their families never knew cleft could be treated or feared the stigma that so often surrounds it. If we can close that awareness gap, we can reach these children in time and make sure not a single one is left waiting.”
This World Cleft Awareness Day, Smile Train India urges parents, caregivers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, media, and communities to play an active role in raising awareness, encouraging early diagnosis, and challenging misconceptions surrounding clefts.
To learn more about how Smile Train India’s sustainable approach, please visit smiletrainindia.org. For cleft treatment-related query or support, please call our toll-free helpline number: 1800 103 8301.
