While improving their customer’s sleep is McRoskey San Francisco’s primary mission, they proudly support local and international organizations that improve the lives of others in a variety of way.
With it being the holiday season, I want to spotlight Alliance for Smiles (AfS), an organization that works tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of children around the world.
Alliance For Smiles
A child with a cleft lip or palate is born every three minutes. In underserved areas, they are sometimes killed, abandoned, abused, or ridiculed, and many face challenging health issues throughout their lives. Many countries lack trained medical teams to serve children with cleft conditions, and even when available, surgery is often unaffordable.
In 2004, six members of the Rotary Club of San Francisco founded AfS to organize and send surgical teams to international sites for two week missions to repair cleft lip and palate anomalies, train local medical teams, and establish permanent Treatment Centers to ensure sustainable, local, long-term care is available.
This San Francisco based organization provides smiles to youth born without one.
A surgical team is composed of approximately 15 medical volunteers supported by 5 or more non-medical volunteers (often Rotarians from around the world). During such missions, 70 to 100 children receive surgery. The AfS team works side by side with local medical practitioners to care for patients, exchange ideas on proper medical techniques and procedures, and provide follow-up care.
From its first two missions to China in 2005, AfS has grown quickly. As of 2021 they have completed over 90 missions all over the world, and treated over 7,000 patients! Without the assistance of AfS these children would never have the chance of living a normal, healthy life as uncorrected palate anomalies result in manifold physical health issues, as well as social isolation and exclusion.
How McRoskey San Francisco Contributes
A member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, McRoskey has supported AfS by donating a mattress shopping spree to their annual fundraisers. Without the assistance of AfS these children would never have the chance of living a normal life as uncorrected palate anomalies result in physical health issues as well as being socially shunned.
How You Can Help
Alliance for Smiles could not be where they are today without the support of the community. Your tax-deductible contribution, large or small, makes a meaningful difference in the life of a child.
