The charm of a smile, the pleasure of a whistle, the easy flow of speech. Children born with facial deformities are robbed of these functions of the mouth — functions we take for granted.

Uplift Internationale conducts Operation Taghoy (a Filipino word for whistle) — an annual mission to the Philippines to provide reparative surgical care to poor, rural children born with facial deformities.

Since its inception in 1989, Uplift Internationale has:

• Provided 1,417 mending care surgeries primarily for cleft lips/palates at no-cost to children in the Philippines
• Over 625 volunteer medical and outreach personnel have participated in 24 annual medical missions
• Provided 192 mending care surgeries (24 per year) at the Taghoy Facial Cleft Clinic at Ormoc
• Volunteers are responsible for their own travel, meals, and lodging expenses.
• The surgery allows these children to move from the shadows of society back into the light of the community.
• The care is provided at no cost to the children or their impoverished families.