Day One of screening primary patients in Marrakech, Morocco. The Medical students (in red fleece), were quick to join forces with us so that our collaboration – in spite of language barriers – was flawless and rewarding.

This little fella is just 6 weeks old, too young for us to operate on now, but this little girl in pink is luckier and will receive surgery with her mother by her side.

Some mothers were just teenagers, so it was easy to imagine how painful and difficult it must be to have a beautiful new baby with this anomaly.

We always arrive with open hearts and hope that we don’t have to turn even one baby away. The good news is that younger babies can come back during our next visit.

It was a great day by all accounts – in English, French and Arabic. Smiles are the same in any language and we sure spoke lots of those!

This Mission is a collaboration between Alliance for Smiles and the doctors and residents from Marradesk ibn Tofail Hospital and Dr Mansouris’ SOS Face program which is designed to repair clefts of local children.