Smiles International Foundation
Cabo Smiles Mission — August 2026
Caring love, advanced surgical care, and hope for children and families in Southern Baja Mexico.
Last week, Smiles International Foundation (SIF)
with their professional volunteers coming from California,
Calgary-Canada, Fargo North Dakota, and throughout the United States
donated their caring love, skills, time, and finances to provide
charitable treatments and surgeries for 50 facial-cleft
difference-affected patients located in Southern Baja Mexico who
were selected from 386 registered patients.
Some patients received travel assistance coming to Cabo San Lucas
(CSL) via the DIF, a Mexican family-assistance program collaborating
with the Rotary Club of Los Cabos, Rotary District 4100 to come for
the clinic from distances as far as 9-10 hours away.
Retired Craniomaxillofacial Surgeon,
Dr. Jeff Moses, SIF President/Founder &
Rotarian from RC of New Braunfels District 5840, Texas led the
mission team.
Because of this mission’s philosophy of maximizing the valuable
and limited resource of advanced pediatric anesthesia, multiple
complex procedures were performed on each of these patients
during surgery.
Eighty (80) reconstructive procedures were accomplished during
the week of treatment
at the H. Especialidades surgical center and H+MAS hospital facilities.
A Final Phase of Facial Reconstruction
Leadership was pleased that another of our patients, treated from
infancy and having staged-sequential surgical reconstructions over
the previous 14 years at our CSL mission clinics, was ready for
her final phase of facial reconstructive surgery.
Facial reconstruction of her jaw, chin, maxilla, and nose using
orthognathic surgery with custom CAD-CAM 3-D titanium plates and
screws donated by KLS Martin Corp.
These procedures were performed by one of our
Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, Dr. Graham Cobb,
at a second hospital facility, H+MAS, which donated its operating
and recovery facilities for this due to the complexity needs for
overnight recovery relative to our other outpatient procedures
usually performed at the H. Especialidades surgical center.
Preparing for Complex Reconstruction
Our young lady patient (Name withheld for privacy) had been
prepared with dental orthodontics after her other stages of
cleft repairs, to align and level her dental arches.
With the assistance of computer virtual surgical planning from
the records sent from Mexico to Dr. Cobb in Canada, and with
the KLS donations of the surgical stint guides, titanium plates
& screws, we were ready to perform the surgery.
This complex facial bone reconstruction with 5 facial segment
repositioning included harvesting of her hip bone for grafting.
Our surgical team accomplished this on the first Monday morning
before returning to our regular outpatient clinic hospital,
H. Especialidades, which is donated for our use
every six months by Rotarian, Dr. Alex Avalos.
An Unexpected Opportunity to Help a New Family
An additional surprise was the birth of a child with bilateral
cleft lip and palate to a family that had no history of facial
clefting in other family members.
This birth occurred in the delivery room right adjacent to our
clinic operations and we were able to give on-the-spot counseling
to the family and their pediatrician about what to expect
throughout the child’s development.
Additionally, SIF VP Maribel Moses registered the
family & Baby into our program which offers all the staged
surgical corrections throughout his growth and development,
giving great comfort to the mother and father.
We applied a DynaCleft elastic facial molding strip
to the child and gave instruction for proper usage.
This prevents excessive premaxillary growth which will result
in a better final outcome from future surgery at our next clinic.
It is rare to have this type of opportunity to interact with
growth adaptation in preparation for this care in the foreign
mission setting.
Help Us Continue Changing Lives
Missions like CaboSmiles are made possible through the generosity
of people who believe every child deserves the opportunity to eat,
breathe, speak, and smile confidently.
Your support helps SIF continue providing charitable treatments,
surgeries, and long-term care to children and families who need it.
With Gratitude to Our Partners and Supporters
Gratitude is given to the
Smiles International Foundation
,
Children's Lifeline International
,
KLS Martin Inc., the Rotary International Foundation,
Rotary Clubs of New Braunfels, District 5840 & Los Cabos
District 4100, H. Especialidades, Hospital H+, Del Mar Los
Cabos, PR Solutions, Mango Deck, Baja Cantina, Garambullo
Catering & Chefs Services, Los Cabos Ride, ARNIAN Freight
and Storage, Anchor Storage, and Restaurante Puerta Vieja.
So many individuals and companies have supported these missions
over the years, and with their continued generosity, many more
children will enter their home communities with the blessings of
being able to eat, breathe, speak, and smile confidently with
function adding to the productivity for their lives.
Cabo Smiles Mission — Team in Action
Please enjoy this YouTube video made by SIF VP Maribel Moses
showing our team in action and some of our CaboSmiles Mission
Aug26 results.
Follow the Mission
Follow Smiles International Foundation, share our mission with
others, and help us continue bringing care and hope to children
and families affected by facial cleft differences.