March 5-15, 2026, Operation International’s Cleft Repair Team will return to Houaphanh, Laos for our second surgery mission in the region. Houaphanh is one the most underserved and geographically isolated provinces in Laos, where access to specialized surgical care is extremely limited due to widespread poverty, geographic isolation and a critical shortage of trained healthcare providers. Our team Aims to help fill this gap in care by providing life changing cleft lip and palate repairs for patients who would otherwise have no access to these surgical services.
Untreated cleft lip and palate leads to lifelong feeding and speech difficulties, recurrent infections, social isolation, and reduced economic opportunities. Our team plans to provide cleft lip and palate repair to 60 patients from Houaphanh and surrounding provences. In most setting, these surgeries are performed within the first year of life; however, in Houaphanh, many patients live with these conditions well into adulthood due to lack of access to care.
The mission will have immediate, life changing impact by providing cleft lip and palate repair to 60 patients who otherwise would not have access to care, helping improve feeding, speech, overall health, and social integration. Beyond the surgeries, our team will work closely with local surgeons, anesthetists and nurses to share practical skills so care can continue after we leave.
Our mission in the quiet corner of Laos has drawn to a close. Over the course of a week, our crew served 55 patients, performing 69 surgical procedures and delivering more than 70 dental treatment as part of our comprehensive cleft care. Smiles once hidden behind shame and Stigler now greet the world with confidence.
We remember the patient who came to represent this mission: the six month old child, and her grandfather, both returning to their mountain village, with newly repaired smiles; and a little girl named See, whose parents burst into tears when they saw her face for the first time after the surgery – then embraced every member of the crew and gratitude. The 11-year-old boy left in the care of his grandfather now gains not only hope in a new smile, but a new family in our crew. Moments like these remind us that behind every statistic is a human story.
The legacy of this mission extends beyond the operating room. Before our departure, we gifted our hosts, a laboratory machine that would help make diagnosing and treatment much easier. Test that were once long journeys or weeks or waiting can now be performed locally, guiding physicians with faster and more precise information. In a place where distance often dictates destiny, the ability to diagnose quickly can mean the difference between uncertainty and life-saving treatment.
One might say, we brought surgical instruments, supplies and scales. But what we truly carried here was something less tangible: the belief that geography should never determine the quality of care a human being receives. Our Lao hosts welcomed us not as visitors, but as partners. Their dedication reminds us that compassion speaks of universal language – when that requires neither translation nor maps to navigate.
As we had started to prepare for our departure from Houaphanh the quarters were quieter. The last dressings had been changed, the final sutures were checked, and our equipment packed away. Yet echoes of laughter, relief, and gratitude lingered like starlight long after the star itself had passed beyond the horizon.
And so this mission has concluded, not with the sense of completion, but with renewed purpose. For in this vast universe, we are reminded of a simple truth: To the world we may be one person, but to one person we may be the world“.
To our friends, families, donors and supporters – thank you. You’ve allowed us to change yet another life for the better.
