Founded in 2006, Operation Smile South Africa (OSSA) joined Operation Smile, Inc. as its 25th partner country. Based in Cape Town, OSSA medical volunteers provide free surgeries to children and adults throughout Southern and Central Africa, as well as educational and training opportunities that promote sustainability and self-sufficiency throughout the region.

OSSA have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Department of Health in South Africa, Swaziland, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Namibia.

In 2006, OSSA conducted its inaugural medical mission in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, where 98 children and young adults received free medical evaluations and 59 patients received free reconstructive surgery.

To date OSSA have conducted three further free surgical missions in South Africa (two at Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape and one in Nelspruit in Mpumalanga), five in Madagascar, one in Swaziland, two in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one in Rwanda and one in Namibia. This brings the total number of OSSA patient smiles to just over 1650.

OSSA is part of a global non-profit medical services organization that has, over the past 29 years, provided care to over 150 000 children and adults worldwide, and currently has a presence in over 60 countries.

The WSPCF is a philanthropic paediatric cardiac foundation which aims to raise the much-needed funds to pay for life-saving surgery for underprivileged children with congenital heart disorders from across Africa.

The cardiac surgery or intervention is undertaken at the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa, situated in Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, as well as at Cape Town’s Netcare Christian Barnard Memorial and Red Cross Children’s Hospitals.

Founded by Dr. Robin Kinsley in 2003, the foundation was established as a living legacy to the late Walter Sisulu and his wife, Albertina.

Read more: Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Foundation