[A] Doctor Bill Magee, a plastic surgeon, and his wife Kathy, a nurse, often meet kings and queens, presidents and movie stars. But the couple are most inspired by their least powerful fans: the 50,000 indigent children around the world who have been given back their smiles.

   Thanks to the Magees and thousands of medical volunteers, those kids no longer suffer with a cleft lip, cleft palate, or birth defects and disfigurements.

   “No children should have to live with a correctable facial deformity,” states Bill Magee, summarizing the mission of Operation Smile, the nonprofit organization they founded in 1982.

   In some countries, the birth of a disfigured child is considered a curse, and if the child is not abandoned outright, he or she may be cut off from the community. It’s not uncommon for OpSmile doctors to treat youngsters who have never been to school or even outside to play with other children. Instead, they have been hidden in shame.

   But after the “45-minute miracle” of cleft-lip repair, “the children can go to school; they can get back to being normal human beings again.”

  And that’s what the Magees see as the spirit of OpSmile: the power of medicine to bridge cultures and countries, the ability to “change the world, one face at a time.”

   Headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, OpSmile today boasts 26 U.S. chapters and runs annual missions to 30 sites in 20 countries. The most severe cases are brought to the States through the World Care program, allowing patients to stay several weeks for surgery and follow-up care.

   Overall, OpSmile provides US$32 million in donated state-of the-art equipment and medical services each year. Dr. Magee donates 150 surgical days a year to OpSmile and travels with Kathy on missions 20 weeks a year. Neither has ever taken one cent in salary, but they feel richly rewarded for their service to others.

   After so many years, the Magees say their work never feels routine. They are constantly refreshed by the enthusiasm of new volunteers and, of course, the instant gratification of those happy little faces. In some countries, presidents, first ladies and other top officials observed the surgeries. After that, they joyfully gave the infants back to their grateful mothers, with tears shared by all.“It was so powerful,” Dr. Maggie recalls. “Those leaders connected with their people like never before.”

   In every mission, host-country doctors worked alongside the visiting physicians, learning techniques to help kids long after OpSmile had left.