Kolkata, 11 August 2026: CreditAccess India Foundation (CAIF), the CSR arm of CreditAccess Grameen Ltd (CA Grameen), India’s largest microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI) in partnership with Mission Smile has launched ‘Grameen Smile’, a cleft lip and palate surgery initiative at H.P. Ghosh Hospital, Kolkata. The initiative aims to provide free, safe and comprehensive cleft care to children from economically disadvantaged families.
The initiative aims to facilitate access to corrective cleft lip and palate surgeries, related medical care and post-operative follow-up for eligible children across West Bengal and Odisha. Under the programme, a minimum of 100 free cleft surgeries will be supported, comprising 50 surgeries in Kolkata district, West Bengal, and 50 surgeries in Khordha district, Odisha, for children aged 6 months to 18 years.
Cleft lip and palate, when left untreated, can affect a child’s ability to feed and receive adequate nutrition, delay speech development and contribute to social exclusion at school and beyond. Grameen Smile seeks to address this gap by making comprehensive cleft care accessible to children who may otherwise struggle to receive timely treatment.
The initiative builds on CAIF’s growing healthcare portfolio, which has already reached more than 31,000 beneficiaries through previous programmes. These include the immunisation of over 6,000 rural schoolgirls against cervical cancer, in partnership with local Zilla Parishads and NGOs, and multi-cancer and general health screening camps that have reached more than 25,000 people across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. With Grameen Smile, CAIF is expanding its healthcare efforts to include specialised surgical care, reaffirming its commitment to ensuring that financial constraints do not stand between children and timely, quality healthcare.
Speaking on the launch, Gururaj Rao, Chief Operating Officer, CA Grameen, & Director, CA India Foundation said “At CreditAccess Grameen, inclusion has always meant standing by our communities on the issues that shape a family’s future, and a child’s health is at the heart of that commitment. Through Grameen Smile, we want every child born with a cleft condition to have the chance to eat, speak and smile with confidence, regardless of what their family can afford. This is only the beginning of our long-term commitment to bringing quality surgical care within reach of the communities we serve.”
Conrad G. Dennis, Chief Executive Officer, Mission Smile added “Every successful surgery represents a child’s opportunity to eat, speak, smile and live with confidence. We are grateful to CA India Foundation for joining hands with us in this important initiative. Together, we hope to bring many more smiles to children and their families.”
About CreditAccess India Foundation:
CreditAccess India Foundation is a registered Section 8 company incorporated in May 2021. It is classified as a non-government company and is registered at the Registrar of Companies, Bengaluru. The Foundation is a 100% subsidiary of CreditAccess Grameen Limited for whom it implements the CSR activities. It focuses on areas of Education, Livelihood, Health, Rural Public Institution Development and Disaster Management spanning the value chain.
For more details: https://www.creditaccessgrameen.in/csr/
About CreditAccess Grameen Limited:
CreditAccess Grameen Limited is a leading Indian microfinance institution headquartered in Bengaluru, focused on providing micro-loans to women customers predominantly in rural areas across India. The Company, is now operating in 457+ districts in 16 states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal) and one union territory (Puducherry) through 2,276 branches. The Company’s Promoter is CreditAccess India B.V., a multinational company specializing in micro and small enterprise financing. It is backed by institutional investors and has a micro-lending experience in India of more than a decade.
For more details: https://www.creditaccessgrameen.in/
About Mission Smile:
Mission Smile is a registered medical charitable trust dedicated to providing free, comprehensive cleft care to children and adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. Since 2003, Mission Smile has provided complete medical evaluations to more than 79,000 cleft patients and performed more than 52,500 free cleft surgeries across India. Its work is delivered through missions, outreach centres and its Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre in Guwahati, supported by a network of medical and non-medical volunteers from India and abroad.
