The clinic is open!

This is the second part of a two-part mission at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). The first part, in November 2025, marked a turning point for Alliance for Smiles in Nigeria: a shift from coming to operate, to coming to train and share knowledge.

The knowledge that covers the whole patient’s surgical journey – language, feeding, development – are all part of cleft care, and we have our speech pathologist Jackie on the ground working alongside her local counterparts.

This week’s schedule includes complex palate cases that will be a great training opportunity. We also have eight returning patients from our last mission, which says something about the trust that has been building here. It was wonderful to see the mothers who met last time smiling at each other, happy to see their kids thriving free from their social stigma, playing with each other.

A story to carry with you today

Daniel was ready for surgery during our November mission. He had been prepped, sedated, everything in place, when a fever ruled him out. He never had his surgery.

Since then, he has called his coordinator every two months, and he has been taking malaria prophylaxis, even though he didn’t have malaria. When asked why, his answer was simple: he could not risk being ruled out again.

We are happy to have him scheduled for surgery tomorrow.

Team LASUTH and Alliance for Smiles are excited about the lives we will change forever during this week.