China and Latin America join hands

to advance poverty alleviation;

empower with wisdom

and achieve far-reaching impact through action.

A platform for
cross-cultural exchange, collaboration, and action.

In this spotlight, we’re introducing one of our participating teams

and discover how they are turning
innovative ideas into real-world impact.

On August 19, “2026 Poverty Alleviation Challenge” Chile Final was successfully held at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Focusing on migrants’ oral health, Team Smile Route won the bronze award for its AI-assisted platform.

[Video of Team Introduction]

Project Overview

Smile Route is a web-based, AI-assisted platform designed to reduce poverty-related vulnerability among migrant communities by connecting oral health prevention with migration guidance. Migrants in Chile and Latin America often face language barriers, low oral health literacy, limited familiarity with healthcare systems, irregular migration status, and fragmented institutional information. These barriers can delay preventive care, normalize symptoms, increase reliance on emergency treatment, and deepen household economic burden.

The platform is free, anonymous, multilingual, and currently in its testing phase. It combines an evidence-based dental education module, an AI-powered orofacial risk-orientation tool, and a migrant guide for service navigation. The AI component is strictly limited to prevention, triage support, and care navigation, but it does not provide definitive diagnoses, prescriptions, treatment plans, legal advice, or official decisions.

Smile Route’s poverty-alleviation mechanism is preventive. By improving access to understandable information, the platform seeks to break cognitive and behavioral barriers that lead vulnerable users to endure minor symptoms until they become severe and costly. Its expected impact will be evaluated through health metrics, such as oral health literacy and preventive service uptake, and poverty-reduction metrics, such as fewer costly procedures and lower out-of-pocket expenses.

Team Members

Nicolás Andrés Avendaño Domínguez: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Team Leader

Sergio Norero Karkling: Universidad de los Andes

YE Jiatong: Tsinghua University

Kasen Xie Lu: Universidad San Sebastián

Daniela María Avendaño Domínguez: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile