Dr. Andrew Jacono’s Missions Reach Children Across the Developing World
The child sitting across the operating table in a clinic in Vietnam or Colombia was born into a world where the surgical skills needed to correct a cleft palate or remove a facial tumor simply did not exist within economic reach. For more than 750 such children, Dr. Andrew Jacono has been the surgeon who changed that reality, arriving through missions organized with international humanitarian groups and bringing operating room experience from one of New York’s most respected facial plastic surgery practices.
Dr. Jacono is a dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon who has built his charitable career across two interconnected domains serving domestic violence survivors in the United States and conducting international pediatric surgical missions. Both efforts address the same core problem: access to reconstructive care for people who cannot pay the market rate for it.
The Scope of International Missions
Dr. Andrew Jacono’s international work is organized through partnerships with Healing the Children, the HUGS (Help Us Give Smiles) Foundation, and THAI Children. He typically completes two international surgical trips per year, working in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam. The conditions he addresses include cleft lips and palates, microtia (malformed or absent ears), facial tumors, and extensive burn scarring.
Each of these conditions carries medical consequences difficulty eating, breathing, hearing, or speaking but also profound social ones. In communities across the developing world, visible facial deformities can prevent children from attending school or being accepted in social settings. Surgery does not just repair tissue; it reopens futures. The more than 750 children Dr. Jacono has treated through these missions represent lives substantially altered by access to a single skilled surgeon willing to donate his time.
To finance the logistical costs of these missions travel, equipment, supplies Dr. Jacono has pursued fundraising through high-altitude climbing. His summits of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Cotopaxi in Ecuador, and Mount Elbrus in Russia have each been tied to campaigns raising money for surgical mission expenses.
Domestic Work and Academic Influence
Within the United States, Dr. Andrew Jacono has operated on more than 100 domestic violence survivors through the FACE TO FACE program, serving as its senior advisor. His nine years chairing the ABOUT FACE: MAKING CHANGES annual benefit and his recognition from the Center for the Women of New York and U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy reflect sustained advocacy alongside surgical contribution.
His academic appointments including Fellowship Director for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and faculty roles at Albert Einstein College of Medicine position him to train surgeons who will carry similar commitments forward. The early influence that shaped his own path, watching a girl’s life change after cleft surgery during medical school, now informs how he teaches others. Refer to this article for more information.
Follow for more about Dr. Andrew Jacono on https://www.instagram.com/drjacono/?hl=en
