Stryker Corporation- Corporate Giving Programs

Repairing Children's Facial Deformities with Operation Smile

Since 1982, Stryker Corp., Kalamazoo, MI, has partnered with Operation Smile to repair facial deformities in children around the world. Stryker funds its contributions directly through corporate funds, not through a foundation.

By providing surgeons in the program with surgical tools and medical supplies, Stryker's involvement has helped the program aid impoverished children and their families in countries like Bolivia, Kenya, Honduras, and Vietnam and beyond. The partnership also fosters educational programs and other outreach that raises medical self-sufficiency in the countries. One example of this behind-the-scenes help is Stryker's participation in Operation Smile's Norfolk, VA-based Physician Training Program. In the two-week program, surgeons learn about and conduct laboratory work connected with reconstructive and pediatric facial surgery.

View photos of children aided through Operation Smile.

Walking a New Road in China

Another of Stryker's outreach programs focuses on its orthopedic expertise - to replace knees and hips in individuals in underserved areas around the globe, in a partnership with Operation Walk, a not-for-profit, volunteer medical services organization. Operation Walk provides free surgical treatment for patients in developing countries and the United States that have no access to therapies for arthritis or other debilitating bone and joint conditions. It also educates in-country orthopedic surgeons, nurses, physical therapists and other health care professionals.

Stryker's first partnership with Operation Walk was with its Chicago branch on a trip to China in 2005. The teams performed 56 total joint replacements at Huaxi Hospital in Chengdu, China, during a one-week period. A year later, Operation Walk Chicago and Stryker traveled to two locations in China, Chengdu and the Zhejiang Traditional Hospital in Hangzhou. There medical teams performed more than 80 total joint replacements. For both trips, Stryker donated more than 130 implants, necessary instrumentation and manpower from both the U.S. and Stryker China.

Obtain more information about Operation Walk