AUSTIN, Texas — A team of nearly two dozen volunteers will soon wrap up a week-long trip to Guatemala City, where they've been performing life-changing surgeries for children.
Austin Smiles' team of plastic and reconstructive surgeons departed Austin for Guatemala City on Sept. 25. The group of 25 medical and non-medical volunteers was scheduled to perform 46 cleft lip and palate surgeries during the trip. The team will return to Austin on Sunday, Oct. 3.
Many of the children waited years for the care they needed in a country where these types of services and medical infrastructure are lacking. For the volunteers, it's all worth it knowing how grateful the families are.
"Many of the moms only know their child with a giant hole in their face. They don't know this child with a normal lip or normal-appearing lip. And so, [it's] seeing the moms react in such a positive way to seeing their baby looks like everybody else's baby, their child has a chance to have the opportunities that all the other children do," Rocco Piazza, a medical volunteer, said.
In November, Austin Smiles will celebrate 35 years of providing surgical care to children born with cleft lips and palates in Central Texas and Latin America. According to the nonprofit, one in 700 children is born with a cleft lip or palate, which impacts their ability to communicate and receive proper nourishment.
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