A reason to smile this year
Operation Smile helps change the lives of people born with cleft conditions
It is estimated that every three minutes a child is born with a cleft lip or cleft palate. They may be unable to eat, speak, socialise or smile, many being shunned by their communities. It takes as little as 45 minutes to perform a safe, effective reconstructive surgery that can change a child’s life forever, but in many countries, medical resources are scarce and expensive. If operations are available, they can cost a year’s salary – an unaffordable expense for many families.
Operation Smile carries out hundreds of medical missions all over the world, with the long term vision of improving the local healthcare system in the areas it operates in. As well as enlisting the support of dedicated medical volunteers from the UK and across the world, Operation Smile provides training to local medical personnel and partners with hospitals, governments and ministries of health to ensure that everyone has access to safe surgery. Most of the medical volunteers are now local to the developing countries, helping to create lasting surgical solutions for communities. This means continuing to provide life-changing reconstructive surgery for children with cleft conditions.
Afia is one such child. Born in Ghana alongside her twin brother, Kofi, Afia’s severe cleft lip and palate set her apart from her sibling from the start. As is the case in many communities Operation Smile works with, stigma and superstitions meant that her extended family wanted nothing to do with her. When Sabrina Ghiddi from Operation Smile Ghana came across her, she couldn’t eat properly and she was starving – at four months old she weighed just 1.2 kg - a healthy child should weigh around 6.4kg. “From Afia’s eyes, I can certainly say that she was not only starving but also was hungry for affection and attention,” said Ghiddi.
Afia was so malnourished that her lifechanging operation had to be cancelled three times due to pneumonia and anaemia. Her mother, Christiana, was devastated that Afia could not have the surgery. “I was heartbroken. Once I went back to my village, the neighbours just blamed me and shunned my husband and me,” said Christiana. “Our family was bound to a future full of disappointment and rejection. I have cried every day for one week but I did not lose hope. Coming to the mission, I realise that I am not the only one having a child suffering with cleft. I felt relieved because I know that the day Afia will receive the surgery will come soon and our lives will be changed forever.”
When Afia was finally able to have the operation she’d been waiting for, medical volunteers in Tamale, including Dr Clive Duke from the UK, performed her reconstructive surgery. In his report of the day, Dr Duke wrote, “I have just taken Afia into recovery and into the arms of her mother who started smiling broadly. All who were watching had a huge smile and a tear in our eyes as we had the strong feeling that a life had just been saved.”
Patients like Afia continue to receive support long after the operation. This focuses on their entire wellbeing, including dentistry, speech therapy, nutritional support and psychosocial care. Even during the current coronavirus pandemic, Operation Smile has continued to provide essential support to families and children virtually, as well as helping to fight the pandemic by diverting much-needed protective equipment to those on the front line.
To find out how you can help, visit operationsmile.org.uk/TheWeek. You can also call 020 3475 5126 or write to Operation Smile UK, Genoa House, Juniper Drive, London SW18 1FY