Operation Smile volunteer plastic surgeon Khassan Baiev with Selima in Taganrog, Russia.

Washington -- Volunteers from across the world provided free medical care to children with facial deformities in November 2007 during the Operation Smile World Journey of Smiles project, the largest simultaneous international medical mission of its kind.

More than 1,700 volunteers from 44 countries, including more than 700 Americans, provided free surgical treatment to 4,000 children born with cleft lips and cleft palates. The volunteers also conducted free physical examinations of more than 7,400 patients.

The goal was to increase the number of children served annually through establishment of regional care centers.

Operation Smile is a Virginia-based charity dedicated to improving the lives of children and young adults born with facial deformities.

Volunteers, medical personnel, counselors and even celebrities worked in 40 hospitals, care centers and clinics in 25 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

In the Philippines, where Operation Smile began 25 years ago, program founders Bill and Kathy McGee signed an agreement with the mayor of Makati -- part of Manila -- to establish a care center at a city hospital. Additional centers are planned for Cebu City and Davao City.

Another Operation Smile mission in Amman, Jordan, treated Jordanian, Iraqi and Palestinian children.

Carmit Bachar of the pop music group Pussycat Dolls participated in the medical mission in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Bachar and her team used face and body painting, bookmaking, crafts and music to help young patients feel comfortable before their screenings and surgeries.

Actors Roselyn Sanchez of the American television program Without a Trace and Eric Winter of the American program Brothers and Sisters helped to screen nearly 250 children in Managua, Nicaragua, and also helped ease the pre-surgery anxieties of patients and their families.

"To see all of those children and their families with their faces filled with hope for a better future was incredible," Sanchez said.

Nurse volunteer Quinn Sharkey recalled one patient she met in Managua. "The boy was terrified and at first was very agitated, but the anesthesiologist and myself calmed him down and eventually got him to lie down. He grabbed my hand and I held his hand and reassured him in what must have been the most horrible Spanish he had ever heard. He looked at me and smiled. ... It showed me that caring for another person crosses all language and cultural barriers."

Volunteer David Wolfe recounted an experience in Casablanca, Morocco. A "restaurant manager came up to me and told me that they had a young man working at the hotel who had a cleft lip. ... I thought nothing of it until three days later when I saw the boy [after the operation]. I kept wondering that if I was experiencing these random acts to kindness, how many [more] were occurring that I was not witnessing."

In partnership with Yale University, Operation Smile collected data and DNA samples in more than half of the participating countries. The samples will be analyzed with the goal of identifying genetic markers of cleft lip and cleft palate.

"World Journey of Smiles was ... the first step in our next journey together as an organization to build the infrastructure that will support children in need year-round," Kathy Magee said.

Operation Smile participants include singers Jessica Simpson and Mariah Carey; television personalities Mark Burnett and Billy Bush; actor Justin Chatwin (War of the Worlds); Venezuelan singer Oscar D’León; actresses Roma Downey and Molly Sims; O.A.R. guitarist Benj Gershman; professional football player Dhani Jones; photographers Nigel Parry and Melanie Dunea; and businessman Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, the actress and model Vanessa Trump.

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