Operation Smile and Little Hugs
The Ryan Batchelder Foundation is supporting Operation Smile with Little Hugs stuffed animals to comfort children before and after life changing cleft palate surgeries. Little Hugs will also be used by Child Life Specialists and medical staff to evaluate skill levels of the children as part of their medical evaluations and to instruct children about medical procedures.
Operation Smile is an international medical charity dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children from more than 60 countries. They have provided more than 220,000 free surgical procedures for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. Two billion people lack access to any surgical care and billions more lack access to safe, well-timed surgeries. Families travel for hours to Operation Smile medical missions in hopes that their child will receive this life changing surgery from Operation Smile volunteers.
