Medical team undertakes cleft lip repair

Published in the Daily Graphic on 15/04/2010, pg 11

Story: Matilda Attram
The Rotary Club of Accra West in collaboration with a 25-member medical team from Alliance for Smiles, a non-profit humanitarian organisation in the United States is performing a two-week surgery for Cleft lip children in Accra.
The club is organising the surgeries, freely, at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, in line with its social responsibilities.
At the opening ceremony, the President of Accra West Rotary Club, Mr Ekow Paintsil, said the exercise was initiated to provide essential medical care for needy children to “put smiles on the faces of the less privileged in society, especially, children.”
He expressed the need for society to encourage people with deformity to partake in communal activities through love and support.
Mr Paintsil expressed gratitude to the management of Ridge Hospital for their support in executing the project and called on the public to take advantage of the exercise to help solve such problems.
The Mission Director of Alliance for Smiles, Mrs Barbara Fisher, stated that the organisation is a non-profitable one which offered support for the development of needy children around the world.
She indicated that although the project signified the first visit of the organisation in Africa, it had served hundreds of children across the western world for five years.
“We adore children because they are important to society. The future of our society is in their hands,” she said.
She hoped the organisation would operate on 70 children within the two-week period and called on the public to take advantage of the surgery adding that “We are here to serve children and make life better for them and their future.”
The Medical Director of the Ridge Hospital, Dr Obeng Apori, expressed gratitude to Rotary Club of Accra West and Alliance for Smiles for supporting the health delivery service of the country.
He appealed to the organisation to train more Ghanaian health professionals in the cleft lip surgery to enable more patients in the country and in neighbouring countries, to benefit.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects that affect the upper lip and roof of the mouth. They are among the most common birth defects that affect children. The incomplete formation of the upper lip (cleft lip) or roof of the mouth (cleft palate) can occur individually, or both defects may occur together. The conditions can vary in severity and may involve one or both sides of the face.
A cleft, or separation of the upper lip and/or the roof of the mouth, occurs very early in the development of unborn babies. During foetal development, certain components of the upper lip and roof of the mouth fail to form normally.
Cleft lip repair is a type of plastic surgery to correct this abnormal development both to restore function and to restore a more normal appearance.
Most clefts can be repaired through specialised plastic surgery techniques, to improve children’s ability to eat, speak, hear and breathe, and to restore a more normal appearance and function.