It’s been 20 years since Alliance for Smiles was formed with the mission to transform the lives of children born with cleft lip and palate by providing free comprehensive treatment.
As we grew, so did our objectives which now includes training, equipping and empowering local medical providers to address the long-term needs of cleft patients.
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we wanted to not just lookback on our journey, but also the people who made our missions possible – the many volunteers who generously shared their time, experience and skills; the staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes and the board members whose knowledge and expertise shape our future.
Anita Stangl, Co-founder and Special Adviser
Anita is a former high school teacher who co-founded Alliance for Smiles along with five other members of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. She looks back on AfS’ journey, her vision for its future and why it’s the tireless work of volunteers that keeps the organization going.
What inspired you to co-found AfS?
Anita Stangl: I had been involved in another organization that did cleft lip and palate surgery. And the reason that I became very involved with them was that I went on a medical mission to La Serena in Chile as a non medical volunteer. The experience literally changed my life!
So, I was involved with that organization, and then there were some philosophical issues that ended up causing a split. Five members of the board of directors and myself split from that organization, and then they said, “Well, we did really well with the other organization, but what do we want to do that can be better?” And we wanted to do something that involved more education and training of local people. So, we created Alliance for Smiles (AfS). I’ve been in cleft lip and palate work since 1994 – for quite a long time, and it really has been a very fulfilling and self-satisfying sort of ambition, because you see change, you try and make a difference. And I think this is very, very important. And the people who helped me start Alliance for Smiles felt the same way.
What was your background before you co-founded AfS?
Anita Stangl: I was an educator. I taught high school for 16 years, full time, and then I started the development effort at the school for the next six years. It was an all-girls Catholic high school, and so we wanted to see about getting more money in as the demographics in San Francisco changed. I loved teaching, but I think there are lots of similarities between teaching and doing the work that I was doing, and I gained some of the expertise that I needed to be able to work in the non-profit arena through my years at the high school. So it was very interesting the way I came into it, but, you know, it was kind of a transition between being an educator and being a fundraiser.
You’ve been on several missions of AfS – Is there any one story that stands out to you in this 20 year journey that inspires you to keep doing the work you do?
Anita Stangl: There was a little girl from Wenzhou, China, who was found in a garbage can after birth, all still bloody. She had been taken in by two migrant workers who were scrounging through the garbage to find things that they could sell, and they found this newborn baby. They took her in, and they brought her to us because she had a cleft palate.
And you have to realize that in a lot of countries, when a child is born with a cleft lip or palate, they are abandoned. So they brought her to AfS’ clinic. We did surgery on the little girl, and she did well through the surgery, and I saw her father.
Six years later when we went back, she was a perfectly healthy, wonderful little girl, and she had palate surgery done free of charge again, but it was wonderful to see that you have this very sweet little girl about six years old, and you were able to see the results of what you had been involved in. This is one story that brings tears to your eyes because you realize the plight of what could have been and what really happened, and that you had a part in creating a life for this child.
What challenges have AfS overcome to be where it is today?
Anita Stangl: There are a lot of challenges. Number one is finding the right site. It’s not easy, because you have to have a partner on the ground that has enough clout to be able to get you the connections with the Department of Health of the host country so that temporary licenses can be given to your medical staff.
Your partner also has to recruit adequate patients. And although the surgery is free of charge, it is sometimes difficult to find patients in countries where you know that there are a lot of cleft lip and palates. But to establish trust with parents whose child will be treated free of charge can be difficult.
Then there are emotional challenges you have to deal with. You have certain standards that you need to put in place. We have a preliminary clinic, and you do have some children who are rejected, because they’re malnourished or have a cold or don’t have a high enough hemoglobin count which is very, very difficult.
There are logistics problems – whether the site has an adequate hospital, having adequate medical people to be recruited for this site and then raising the funds to be able to send them on these missions. This is a huge responsibility, absolutely gigantic. So if you don’t raise the money, how can you do the mission?
Where do you hope to see AfS 10 years from now? Is there any specific work that you believe AfS should focus on?
Anita Stangl: Well, my opinion is I would like us to focus on our treatment program and treatment centers and be able to build those, because that would be empowering local doctors and giving them the tools to be able to deal with the surgery. The problem with plastic surgery, and particularly cleft lip and palate, is there’s a very, very sharp learning curve, and with the learning curve, you have difficulty training a lot of local doctors, because in most of these countries, a surgeon does not have anywhere near the training that doctors in the United States have.
My vision for AfS is more treatment centers, more ability to educate, greater cooperation from host countries. For example, we ended up with a phenomenal program going in Myanmar, and then there was a change in the government, and we can’t go back there right now, you know, so you build the relationships, you build everything. I would love to see greater continuity and collaboration with a lot of local people and doctors.
What message do you have for anyone who wishes to volunteer with AfS in any capacity?
Anita Stangl: You will see things that you didn’t think you could see. You will meet people who you never thought you would meet, you would have an experience like you never thought you would have, and that is the wonderful result of being a volunteer. And we thank our volunteers tremendously, because they do give up their time, their funds and everything else in order to help us. So that’s my message to somebody who wants to volunteer for a trip.
I feel thankful every day for these wonderful volunteers who are willing to give up their time, their talent, their expertise, and am grateful every day for people who help keep the organization alive economically, because that is a big thing. You are trying to make a difference in this world, especially where we have so much animosity among different nations, that you can make a little bit of a difference. If you can realize that a parent who has a child treated by us is going to have a very different attitude about the United States, that’s important, and we’ll have life.