Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft charity and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced that they have partnered to continue building a sustainable system to address the solvable problem of the cleft lip and palate. Through the SanDisk Foundation, SanDisk’s global commitment is helping to bring life-changing cleft care to children in developing countries by committing support through technology solutions, services, volunteer matching gifts, and grant funds.

“Technology innovations are opening new doors for healthcare access. Partnering with technology leader SanDisk will be instrumental in helping to expand the work that Smile Train has done since 1999, leveraging new technologies to help train local medical professionals so that they are empowered to provide surgery and related treatment to even more children living with unrepaired clefts,” said Susannah Schaefer, CEO, Smile Train. “We are so proud to have a partner that is as committed to leveraging technology for humanitarian good as SanDisk. Working with partners like SanDisk, we look forward to bringing the power of a smile to millions more children around the world.”

“Knowledge is key for medical professionals in the field, and we are excited to see our technologies in action, working with Smile Train to extend their robust network and provide educational reach regardless of location, availability of electricity or Internet access,” said Gisela Bushey, director, SanDisk Foundation and community relations, SanDisk. “As we see every day, technology can have a transformative impact on people’s lives, and we are proud to partner with Smile Train to support efforts to help children in need; we look forward to supporting their great work in the years to come.”

Each day, Smile Train provides free surgery for more than 350 children worldwide, and in April 2014, celebrated its millionth free cleft repair surgery. Smile Train uses the “teach a man to fish” model, empowering local doctors to perform cleft repairs in their own communities, and to teach and to train other doctors. This creates a long-term, sustainable system. The SanDisk and Smile Train partnership will strengthen this model by facilitating information sharing across a global network of cleft medical personnel who work and train in remote parts of the world, and by providing resources that these professionals might have barriers to accessing on their own. The partnership will help expand access to medical training videos, photos, and documents that in turn will extend the medical teams’ reach, bringing the power of a smile to even more children in need.

Using SanDisk Connect™ devices, Smile Train and local doctors can wirelessly store and share materials across multiple devices, even in areas where Wi-Fi is not available. This allows them to extend their network of medical professionals, helping to train even more personnel and strengthen the cleft care programs.