Author: sHq_LoGiNz
NEW YORK, July 20, 2026 /3BL/ – In recognition of World Cleft Awareness Day, Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona are celebrating a major milestone in their partnership—the 7,000th cleft surgery enabled since 2021—and sharing new data that quantifies its impact well beyond the operating room.
Behind that single number sits a wider story the partners are telling for the first time. Alongside the surgeries themselves, Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona are now sharing the long-term economic and human impact of this work as clear evidence that restoring a child’s smile reverberates through families, communities, and economies for decades.
Impact that outlasts the operating room
Using the framework of Smile Train’s Economic Impact Report, the surgeries enabled by Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona between 2021 and 2025 are projected to generate more than $470 million in economic value over the patients’ lifetimes. The figure reflects a straightforward truth: a child who can eat, speak, and breathe normally can go to school, find work, and contribute fully to their family and community—opportunities an untreated cleft can quietly foreclose.
The same surgeries are estimated to have averted more than 45,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)—a standard global-health measure in which one DALY represents one year of healthy life lost to disease or disability. Put simply, this work has restored the equivalent of more than 45,000 years of healthy living to children who might otherwise have spent them struggling to eat, speak, or breathe.
“When you give a child cleft care, you give them back their childhood,” said Susannah Schaefer, President and CEO of Smile Train. “On top of that, you give a community a future contributor. The economic impact we’re sharing today puts a value on how a healed cleft changes a life, and changed lives change the world around them.”
An impact built to last
Founded in 2021, the five-year partnership between Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona is focused on advancing digital cleft care globally, combining Smile Train’s global network of trained local providers with Dentsply Sirona’s digital dental technologies and know-how. Rather than delivering care through short-term surgical missions, the partners invest in local clinicians and equipment so that safe, high-quality, comprehensive cleft care is available in communities year-round.
“Behind every one of these 7,000 surgeries is a child who can now eat, speak, and smile without barriers, and a family whose future just changed,” said Rainer Seemann, VP, Chief Clinical Officer at Dentsply Sirona. “What moves me most is that this is not charity in the traditional sense. By equipping local clinicians with digital solutions and training, we’re building care that takes root in the community and stays there. That’s the kind of impact our people are proud to stand behind.”
The milestone is being marked on World Cleft Awareness Day, observed July 20, which spotlights the diverse experiences of the global cleft community and the importance of comprehensive medical, emotional, and social support. Cleft conditions are common—impacting roughly one in every 700 children worldwide—yet remain widely misunderstood, and in many regions timely, comprehensive care is still difficult to access even though proven solutions exist.
About Smile Train
Smile Train empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. We advance a sustainable solution and scalable global health model for cleft treatment, drastically improving children’s lives, including their ability to eat, breathe, speak and ultimately thrive. To learn more about how Smile Train’s sustainable approach means donations have both an immediate and long-term impact, please visit smiletrain.org.
About Dentsply Sirona
Dentsply Sirona is the world’s largest diversified manufacturer of professional dental products and technologies, with over a century of innovation and service to the dental industry and patients worldwide. Dentsply Sirona develops, manufactures, and markets a comprehensive solutions offering including dental and oral health products as well as other consumable medical devices under a strong portfolio of world-class brands. Dentsply Sirona’s innovative products provide high-quality, effective and connected solutions to advance patient care and deliver better and safer dental care. Dentsply Sirona is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Company’s shares are listed in the United States on Nasdaq under the symbol XRAY. Visit www.dentsplysirona.com for more information about Dentsply Sirona and its products.
Media Contact
Emily Gay | Public Relations
egay@smiletrain.org | (561) 308-0089
NEW YORK, July 20, 2026 /3BL/ – Lenovo Foundation and Street Child United (SCU) celebrated two exceptional young leaders, Samantha Richards and Deyna Mamani Meji, with the presentation of tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ Final, recognizing their leadership, resilience and commitment to creating positive change in their communities. The special presentation took place in New York and featured Sir David Beckham, alongside Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang, Gina Qiao, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Lenovo, SCU President and Founder John Wroe and SCU Head of Sponsorship Devin Moss.
The experience highlights Lenovo Foundation’s partnership with Street Child United, an organization that uses the power of sport to ensure street-connected young people are seen, heard and able to influence the decisions that affect their lives.
As part of the partnership, Lenovo Foundation is supporting Street Child United’s mission through technology access, digital skills development and funding initiatives designed to help young people develop critical skills for the future. Support includes donations of Motorola smartphones to help participants stay connected and share their stories, Lenovo PCs for SCU Young Leaders and staff, and funding for AI digital literacy training.
The two Young Leaders honored today were selected from Street Child United’s Young Leaders Program, which supports former participants who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and a deep commitment to their communities. As champions for the rights of street-connected young people, they represent the voices and experiences of their communities on national and international stages.
“At Lenovo Foundation, we believe that access to technology and education can unlock opportunity and transform lives,” said Calvin J. Crosslin, Vice President, Chief Inclusion Officer and President of Lenovo Foundation. “These two young leaders represent the extraordinary potential that exists in young people everywhere when they are given the tools, support and opportunity to succeed. Through our partnership with Street Child United, we are helping equip young leaders with the skills and technology they need to tell their stories, strengthen their communities and shape their futures. It is an honor to celebrate their achievements on one of the world’s biggest stages.”
John Wroe, CEO of Street Child United said: “We are delighted that Lenovo Foundation are providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to our Young Leaders. Partnerships like this are vital in helping us turn create opportunity for street-connected young people.”
The recognition builds on Lenovo Foundation’s broader support of Street Child United, including the donation of Lenovo PCs and Motorola smartphones and $25,000 in funding support for AI digital literacy training for SCU Young Leaders.
The partnership aligns with Lenovo Foundation’s mission to provide access to technology and education for communities that need it most while demonstrating how sport has the power to enable inclusion, opportunity and social impact around the world.
By combining the global reach of sport with access to technology and digital skills, Lenovo Foundation and Street Child United are helping ensure that young people from underserved communities have the opportunity to develop as leaders, advocates and changemakers.
Read more here about Lenovo’s partnership with FIFA and the FIFA World Cup 2026™.
Authors: Tannaz Daruwalla, Leonardo Tibaquira, Miquel Jordana (republished with permission of Accion)
Every morning in El Alto, Bolivia, Yoselin has dozens of financial considerations to think about before her first customer arrives. How much oil should she buy this week? Will rising food prices cut into her profits again? Will there be enough left at the end of the month to support her family?
At just 26 years old, Yoselin runs a small storefront where she serves salchipapas — a local dish of sausage and fries — and hamburgers to her customers, primarily young people from the surrounding community. She started the business to generate additional income for her family, but like many first-time entrepreneurs, she quickly discovered that hard work alone is not always enough to sustain and grow a business.
Managing and tracking inventory was time-consuming, producing high-quality food for her growing customer base was demanding, and she also had to contend with rising costs for her ingredients, making planning unpredictable. And like many small business owners operating informally, she relied mostly on instinct to manage expenses and cash flow.
That began to change when she connected with BancoSol, Accion’s longtime partner in Bolivia. Through BancoSol, Yoselin accessed a small business loan that helped stabilize her operations and invest more confidently in her business. She also participated in Ovante, Accion’s digital financial capability program supported by FedEx, designed for microentrepreneurs to strengthen financial skills and decision-making through practical, accessible learning.
These may sound like small changes, but for entrepreneurs operating on very thin margins, understanding cash flow and planning ahead can make the difference between surviving week to week and building long-term stability. The Ovante modules, offered to BancoSol’s customers via an online mobile platform and delivered in workshops, have had immediate benefits for women entrepreneurs like Yoselin. It has also proved beneficial for her family, including Yoselin’s mother, who was unfamiliar with the concept of formal budgeting for her household and business finances.
Digital tools have further expanded Yoselin’s reach. Through WhatsApp groups, she now communicates with her customers to let them know when she’s open and what’s on the menu. Recently, Yoselin started experimenting with TikTok to attract new customers and build her brand.
In communities like El Alto, where many women entrepreneurs operate informally and face constant economic uncertainty, access to practical financial tools can have a huge impact. The challenge is often not lack of ambition, but lack of access to tools, systems, and support that help microentrepreneurs make informed decisions and plan for growth. That is where programs like Ovante can play an important role. By combining financial education with digital accessibility, the platform helps entrepreneurs build not only technical knowledge, but also confidence and agency.
With improved confidence and decision-making power, women entrepreneurs are better able to contribute to their household income and plan for the future. Yoselin is setting an example for other women in her community, demonstrating that small changes in financial habits can build resilience against economic uncertainty.
Ovante’s digital financial education, delivered in partnership with BancoSol, is more than just a learning platform; it’s a catalyst for positive change. Since 2020, Accion has launched Ovante in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, and India, reaching over 150,000 customers — two-thirds of whom are women.
Equipping microentrepreneurs with practical skills, confidence, and accessible tools enables them to thrive, adapt, and dream bigger in the face of adversity. For Yoselin, the transformation is deeply personal. She still faces rising costs and uncertainty, but today she approaches those challenges differently: with greater confidence, stronger financial habits, and a clearer vision for what her business, and her future, could become.
Click here to learn about FedEx Cares, our global community engagement program.