Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization based in Norfolk, Virginia (USA), founded in 1982. A secular NGO, the children's medical charity provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide, assists countries in reaching self-sufficiency with these surgeries, and works to reduce the occurrence of cleft lips and palates. To date, Operation Smile has provided reconstructive surgery to over 140,000 children and young adults in more than 50 countries.

Operation Smile was created by Dr. Bill and Kathy Magee after they participated in a Philippine cleft repair mission in 1982 and recognized a need for more missions.

According to a 2003 interview, when asked about the start of Operation Smile, Magee said:

'It was guilt. We were invited to join a group going on a medical mission to the Philippines. We saw hundreds of children and saw many more turned away.'

For each mission,  a team typically includes a mission site coordinator, plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, a pediatrician, an intensive care physician, head or coordinating nurse, pre- and post-op nurses, child development specialists, speech pathologists, dentists and/or orthodontists.

Teams are organized with volunteers from within the host nation as well as from other nations. Many of the volunteers provide important logistical (non-medical) support to the mission; they may serve as translators, medical records technicians, photographers, or help in such areas as food services, lodging, procurement of supplies, or transportation. The teams also typically include two high school students who fulfill various functions, including giving presentations on health maintenance and dental hygiene to families living near the mission site. Operation Smile coordinates the donation, purchase and delivery of medical provisions (equipment, medications, supplies) for each mission.

In 2005, these volunteer medical teams provided free surgeries for 8,359 children through international and local, in-country medical missions. During the fiscal year of 2009, Operation Smile provided free surgeries for nearly 13,000 children and young adults suffering from cleft lip and/or cleft palate.

In 1996, Operation Smile received the first Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to recognize outstanding contributions to alleviate human suffering.
To mark its 25th anniversary in November 2007, Operation Smile undertook the World Journey of Smiles (WJOS), a single campaign that included 40 simultaneous missions over a period of two weeks in 25 countries -- beginning with the return to the site of Operations Smile's first mission . During WJOS, Operation Smile completed 4,200 cleft lip/palate surgeries with 1,700 volunteers from 43 countries. 

Vitamin Angels is a non-profit, non-governmental organization focused on bringing essential nutrition to children around the world through vitamin supplementation. Vitamin Angels' mission is to mobilize and deploy private sector resources to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, by newborns, infants and children in need.

Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality worldwide by connecting essential micronutrients, especially vitamin A, with infants and children under five. Essential micronutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives.

Founder and President Howard Schiffer had been a part of natural products industry for many years. After the Northridge Earthquake in California he got a call asking if he would be able to get vitamins to the victims suffering from the after-effects of the earthquake. Howard soon realized the capabilities of vitamin supplements in providing vital nutrition, and in 1994, Vitamin Angels was born. Vitamin Angels has since evolved, now addressing chronic malnutrition on a global level. 

It is a large misconception that severe malnutrition is caused by not getting enough to eat. Often the issue lies in not getting the right micronutrients. New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof calls this the "hidden hunger."  Approximately 670,000 children under the age of five die due to lack of vitamin A in their diets every year. Children who are micronutient deficient do not have the proper nutrition necessary to develop a proper immune system and bodily function, leaving them more succeptible to disease and overall mortality.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections.  VAD affects between 100 to 140 million children every year. It is very prevalent in the developing world, with sixty-one countries considered priority countries for Vitamin A supplementation by UNICEF and WHO. Beyond this, thirty-five additional countries are considered to be less at risk, but still priority countries for Vitamin A programs.  In addition to overall health and immune system function, Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for eye health. It is estimated that 250,000 to 500,000 go blind from vitamin A deficiency every year, and half die within 12 months of losing their sight.

Thrive to Five is Vitamin Angels' global multivitamin campaign. Thrive to Five aims to reach at-risk children with essential nutrients to alleviate the problem of global malnutrition by providing children under five and pregnant and lactating mothers with essential multivitamins.

Every year, around 54 million new children are affected by malnutrition or undernutrition. Through Thrive to Five, Vitamin Angels gives prenatal and postnatal supplements to pregnant and lactating mothers in order to provide necessary nutrition to babies in the womb and newborns, leading to better birth weights, proper bodily development, and lower overall mortality rates. Thrive to Five also provides children under five with multivitamins in order to improve growth, strengthen the immune system, and improve overall health.

In 2009, Thrive to Five distributed around 100 million doses of essential micronutrients in 21 countries on four continents, including the United States.

Free The Children is a children's charity founded in 1995 by children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger. The organization is largely youth-funded, specializing in sustainable development in six marginalized countries: Kenya, Sri Lanka, India, Ecuador, Sierra Leone and China.

Free The Children was founded in 1995 by Craig Kielburger when he was 12 years old. Kielburger was reading through the Toronto Star newspaper before school one day when he came across an article about the murder of 12-year-old Pakistani factory worker Iqbal Masih who had spoken out against child labour.

Soon after, Kielburger established Free The Children with a group of his 12-year-old classmates. The organization was devoted to exposing child labour to North Americans and encouraging other children to get involved in the issue. In an attempt to learn more about child labour, he then travelled to South Asia to meet child labourers and hear their stories first-hand. It was on that trip in 1995 that Kielburger captured the attention of the media (in Canada and, to a lesser extent, the United States) when he secured an impromptu meeting with then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien who was visiting Southeast Asia for a trade delegation. Kielburger attempted to persuade Chrétien to bring the subject of international child labour onto the Canadian Government's radar.

After returning home to Canada, Kielburger and his friends at Free The Children began taking on fundraisers and petitions in order to help fight child labour. Along with his brother Marc, Kielburger grew the small organization into a full-fledged registered charity.

In 1999, at the age of 16, Craig Kielburger authored Free the Children, a book detailing his journey to South Asia four years earlier and the founding of his charity.The book was re-released in 2007 with Me to We Books.

In the years since its founding, Free The Children has focused its efforts less on eradicating child labour, and more on eradicating the barriers to children's education in the developing world. According to the organization's website, their goals are to "Free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world." Today, they have built more than 500 schools in developing regions worldwide and established three offices in Canada (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) and one office in the United States (Palo Alto, California).

Free The Children currently implements its Adopt a Villagedevelopment model in rural communities in six countries: China, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Sierra Leone, India and Ecuador. Adopt a Village is made up of four components: education, health care, alternative income, and clean water and sanitation. Among other projects, Adopt a Village builds schools and water wells, and provides medical treatment and income sources to the developing regions.These projects are designed to address the root causes of poverty and remove the barriers to children’s education in the developing world.