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SanDisk and Smile Train Team Up to Bring the Power of a Smile to Children in Need

NEW YORK & MILPITAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft charity and SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced that they have partnered to continue building a sustainable system to address the solvable problem of the cleft lip and palate. Through the SanDisk Foundation, SanDisk’s global commitment is helping to bring life-changing cleft care to children in developing countries by committing support through technology solutions, services, volunteer matching gifts, and grant funds.

“Technology innovations are opening new doors for healthcare access. Partnering with technology leader SanDisk will be instrumental in helping to expand the work that Smile Train has done since 1999, leveraging new technologies to help train local medical professionals so that they are empowered to provide surgery and related treatment to even more children living with unrepaired clefts,” said Susannah Schaefer, CEO, Smile Train. “We are so proud to have a partner that is as committed to leveraging technology for humanitarian good as SanDisk. Working with partners like SanDisk, we look forward to bringing the power of a smile to millions more children around the world.”

“Knowledge is key for medical professionals in the field, and we are excited to see our technologies in action, working with Smile Train to extend their robust network and provide educational reach regardless of location, availability of electricity or Internet access,” said Gisela Bushey, director, SanDisk Foundation and community relations, SanDisk. “As we see every day, technology can have a transformative impact on people’s lives, and we are proud to partner with Smile Train to support efforts to help children in need; we look forward to supporting their great work in the years to come.”

Each day, Smile Train provides free surgery for more than 350 children worldwide, and in April 2014, celebrated its millionth free cleft repair surgery. Smile Train uses the “teach a man to fish” model, empowering local doctors to perform cleft repairs in their own communities, and to teach and to train other doctors. This creates a long-term, sustainable system. The SanDisk and Smile Train partnership will strengthen this model by facilitating information sharing across a global network of cleft medical personnel who work and train in remote parts of the world, and by providing resources that these professionals might have barriers to accessing on their own. The partnership will help expand access to medical training videos, photos, and documents that in turn will extend the medical teams’ reach, bringing the power of a smile to even more children in need.

Using SanDisk Connect™ devices, Smile Train and local doctors can wirelessly store and share materials across multiple devices, even in areas where Wi-Fi is not available. This allows them to extend their network of medical professionals, helping to train even more personnel and strengthen the cleft care programs.

About Smile Train

Smile Train is an international children’s charity with a sustainable approach to a single, solvable problem: cleft lip and palate. Millions of children in developing countries with unrepaired clefts live in shame, but more importantly, have difficulty eating, breathing and speaking. Cleft repair surgery is simple, and the transformation is immediate. Smile Train’s sustainable model provides training and funding to empower local doctors in 85+ developing countries to provide 100%-free cleft repair surgery in their own communities. To learn more about how Smile Train’s sustainable approach means donations have both an immediate and long-term impact, please visit smiletrain.org

About the SanDisk Foundation

SanDisk’s mission as a philanthropic company is to support programs and organizations that address the needs of communities where our company has a significant presence. SanDisk strives to be an exemplary corporate citizen within the global community. The SanDisk Foundation, a corporate advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, helps carry out this vision by making donations to non-profit organizations and community groups within our key focus areas: K-12 education, promoting STEM-focused programs, and children’s health and well-being. Since 2003, the SanDisk Foundation has awarded more than $25 million to over 1,000 charitable organizations worldwide.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For more than 25 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk’s quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world’s largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smartphones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

© 2015 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. SanDisk Connect is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation.

Contacts

Smile Train
Shari Mason, 212-689-9316
Senior Director, Integrated Marketing
[email protected]
or
SanDisk Corporation
Laura Bakken, 408-801-7653
[email protected]

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