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Our Guayaquil Story
Global Smile Foundation (GSF) volunteers have been involved with outreach cleft programs in Guayaquil, Ecuador for more than 3 decades. We have maintained relationships with our earliest patients and their families, many of whom have grown up to volunteer with us and one has even joined our staff as a full-time employee.
GSF is now the largest provider of comprehensive cleft care in the country and supports a Comprehensive Cleft Center at Hospital León Becerra to provide a full range of integrated and multidisciplinary cleft care throughout the year, at no cost to all patients and their families. The center is managed by Fundación Global Smile Ecuador, established in 2012 to ensure the sustainability of GSF’s humanitarian work.
Most Recent Trip: March 7-20, 2022
GSF founders and volunteers have been providing cleft care outreach programs in Guayaquil for 35 years.
Impact
GSF and GSF-Ecuador volunteers provided life-changing care, including:
- 138 Patients screenings
- 270 PCRs done (patients, guardians, and team members)
- 151 Surgical procedures for 64 patients
- 274 Dental procedures
- 149 Psychosocial interventions
- 32 Nutrition consults
- 18 Speech and Language Pathology Sessions
The GSF & GSF-Ecuador Team
Some volunteers came for the first week and others came for the second week:
- 15 Surgeons (11 GSF & 4 GSF- Ecuador)
- 10 Anesthesia Staff
- 8 OR Nurses
- 5 PACU Nurses
- 5 Pediatric Specialists
- 5 Dentists (GSF-Ecuador)
- 2 Nursing Student Volunteers
- 3 Psychologists (GSF-Ecuador)
- 6 Admin Coordinator
- 2 Photographers (GSF-Ecuador)
- 1 IT Manager
- 1 Nutritionist (GSF-Ecuador)
- 1 SLP
- 28 Volunteers (GSF-Ecuador)