World Smile Day is recognised each year on the first Friday in October. This year, it falls on October 2.
It is an international day dedicated to kindness and to the difference one person can make in another person’s life.
For Operation Smile Australia, it is a reminder that a smile can represent so much more than happiness. It can mean better health, clearer speech, stronger confidence and the support children need to participate more fully in everyday life.
Meet Denisse – an ongoing journey
Denisse is a playful seven-year-old girl from Mexico.
She was born with a cleft lip and palate. Local doctors repaired her lip when she was four months old and Operation Smile repaired her palate when she was four. But cleft care rarely ends with a single operation. As a child grows, their needs can change too, and ongoing care can support them through each stage of recovery.
Denisse recently returned to an Operation Smile international program in Puebla, Mexico, for another stage of her care.
Growing up, she had faced challenges with nutrition and speech. More recently, she had also been experiencing relentless bullying at school, coming home in tears every day.
This next stage of treatment offered a chance to speak more easily and feel more confident — and, she hoped, to walk into her classroom without fear.
Our International Puebla Program
At our recent International Puebla program in September, 215 children were assessed and 83 children received surgery.
Screening days can involve long waits for patients and families, and the care offered around those moments matters too. Volunteers involve children in games and activities throughout the day, helping them feel seen, supported and safe while they wait for the next step in their care.
Between games, Australian volunteer nurse Carmel Corso asked Denisse to draw a self-portrait which showed how she would feel after her operation.
Carmel then asked Denisse to choose just one word which described how she would feel.
Denisse’s answer was simple:
“Feliz.” (Happy).
A simple hope
Surgery cannot solve every problem a child faces. But for children like Denisse, safe surgery and ongoing care can make daily life easier — helping a child eat, speak and face the world with more confidence.
For Denisse, it is a simple hope, but it speaks to something every child deserves—the chance to keep growing, keep healing and to look ahead with happiness.
This World Smile Day, you can help more children like Denisse receive the surgery, and ongoing care they need to thrive. Give now.