Creating Smiles,
Improving Lives

Day 2: The team arrived at Hospital General De Cholula this morning to prepare for the week's surgeries and conduct triage. The hospital is a beautiful, brand-new facility that opened in November of last year. We had a warm welcome from the local medical staff, and...

Day 1: Well, the day has finally arrived and we've got 27 Austin Smile-ers headed to Puebla, Mexico! We'll keep you up-to-date along the way sharing the experience of this innagural trip to Puebla. Wish us luck and let us know via facebook...

by Leilani They sat patiently and quietly waited outside with their baby girl, Angelica, as the surgeons, between their surgeries, came out to meet and visit with them. With the odds against them, they figured they had nothing to lose when they heard that Austin...

As we say adios to El Salvador, until the next time, here are a few memories of our week. When things get crazy - sometimes you just have to laugh about it!    Appearances can be deceiving... View from the city with Boquerón Volcano in the background left      Caring...

When Austin Smiles first began their mission trips to El Salvador, there were two men who were instrumental in our success; one was Julio Gonzales (a local businessman) and the other was Dr. Roberto Pineta (a local orthodontist).  Both men wanted to help their fellow...

Ten-month-old Joseph, his mother and his two-week-old sister, traveled with a relative for four hours on a bus to reach the hospital in San Salvador.  There was room in the schedule to add him on, so he was to be operated on that day.  He was animated and happy on...

This is the first Austin Smiles trip for Anesthesiologist Dr. Mary Zavala, but it is not her first trip to El Salvador.  She was born here, named Acsa Merari Zavala Flores. She is from San Miguel region, on the edge of lake Olomega by the volcano.  Her parents went to...

Our dentist, Dr. Tom Sentz, noticed that our bus driver Christian Roque was missing a tooth.  Tom made him a false tooth (called a “flipper”) to fill in that spot!      Tom has been coming on trips with Austin Smiles, annually or more often, since the mid-90s, so he...

It is easy to fall in love with the babies and children that are being treated by the Austin Smiles team. Here are a few that we are loving this week. Ximena is 12 months old and charming is the only word to describe her. Maritsa was dressed in a precious denim dress...

The power went out in the hospital on Monday, producing lots of anxiety for the medical team and for the patients’ parents.   Fortunately it came back on almost immediately. Today the power went out again about 10:30 am, but this time the hospital had to rely on...

Austin Smiles volunteers call ourselves a family, but in many cases that is literally true.  Husbands and wives regularly serve together, and volunteers frequently bring a child, niece, or nephew along.  On this trip we have two sets of sisters. In a family of 5...

Alisa Baron is a speech pathologist who is trained in bilingual therapy. She speaks Spanish beautifully.  On Smiles trips, she works with children and their parents at numerous points in the process. At triage, she examines children for velo-pharyngeal insufficiency,...