With cleft palate, the hole in the roof of the mouth connects directly to the nasal cavity. It causes an inability to speak properly, difficulty eating and often deafness from about the age of 12 due to middle ear canal infections.

In Australia between 300 and 400 babies are born with the condition. In Bangladesh, that figure is about 5000, and most parents can't afford the $800-$900 corrective surgery.

Operation Cleft Australia, a unique international project of the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central, has funded operations for around 13,000 Bangladeshi babies and children over the past 14 years.

Chairman Bruce McEwen said Operation Cleft enables surgery to be undertaken at 42 Bangladeshi hospitals, performed by highly trained local surgeons.

"The team of local surgeons charge $300 for each operation, so we can help many families," he said.

That figure covers anaesthetic, surgery, pre- and post-operative medications, he said, adding that the surgeons work for a very low fee.

"Using local surgeons is far more efficient than flying them in from overseas - we can be operating every week, every month.

"Eighty per cent of our funding comes from Rotary Clubs - there are 1000 in Australia and 420 of them donate to Operation Cleft. We also work with Probus groups, who are very supportive."

Last year the organisation entered a collaborative agreement with DCKH, a German group providing free surgery in Bangladesh and 12 other developing countries. It plans to perform more than 3000 operations over the next two years.

Operation Cleft Australia recently appointed an ambassador, Moinul Islam, who began working with the project in Bangladesh in 2015.

Currently living in regional Victoria, Moinul helps with marketing and networking among Rotary clubs, community and church groups and trusts, seeking donations to "gift a smile for life".

He knows well how much Operation Cleft Australia changes lives.

"I see the children, the before and after photos and can only see the change in their face. But the number one change is to the family, and the way society perceives them in Bangladesh," he said.

"Over there Mum and Dad and the family are blamed for the child being like that, and the children are outcast. The biggest change after surgery is in the community's perspective."

Bangladeshis Saber and Ferdowshi worked hard to lift themselves and their two children out of hardship, with Saber working as a migrant overseas to help provide.

When their third child, Tahpin, was born, their lives came to a crashing halt: she was born with a severe case of congenital cleft lip and palate.

Living in a remote village where information and awareness about the condition is poor, they worried about treatment and their daughter's future.

Spotting one of the project's posters in a Chittagong hospital, they made enquiries and were lucky to have Tahpin's surgery done when she was six months old.

Now a resilient and active one-year-old, she has also undergone palate surgery and brought big smiles to the faces of all who know and love her.

For more information and how to donate, see operationcleft.org.au