Our History

Back in 2007 our association was born under the name of Smile Train Italia Onlus; our initial aim was to give surgery to children with cleft lip and palate in the most disadvantaged countries, offering them a chance to smile and enjoy a normal life.

In 2012 Smile Train was recognised as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and in January 2013 we decided to change our name to “Emergenza Sorrisi - Doctors for Smiling Children”. Such a change allowed us to broaden our scope, so as to include the prevention and the improvement of local socio-health status; becoming autonomous as an Italian Association, and independent from Smile Train Inc.

Emergenza Sorrisi is an association consisting of volunteer doctors specialising in plastic and maxilla-facial surgery, anaesthetists, paediatricians, nurses and experts in logistics, carrying out surgery missions to heal children stricken by major facial malformations. They offer specialist care in those countries where such pathologies are extremely widespread, while the expertise of local doctors is too limited to