Operation Smile Mexico was honored by President Enrique Peña Nieto as the 2016 group winner of the Premio Nacional de Acción Voluntaria y Solidaria, the annual prize for outstanding achievement in volunteer charity work.
The organization was selected from a field of 575 candidates postulated for the prestigious award.
Operation Smile Mexico Director Benjamin Mijangos Borjas, who resides in Ajijic, was on hand to accept the prize at a gala ceremony held December 6 at Los Pinos, the presidential residence in Mexico City.
Over the past decade Operation Smile Mexico has changed the lives of more than 3,000 Mexicans afflicted with congenital cleft lip, cleft palate and facial deformities, through the program of free corrective surgeries it provides as an affiliate of the worldwide Operation Smile organization.
For more information, see www.operationsmile.org.