VOLTA REGIONAL HOSPITAL GIVES SMILES TO PEOPLE WITH CLEFT LIPS AND PALATE

A fourteen team of specialist doctors from various health facilities in the country has begun a week operation on people with cleft lips or palate at the Volta regional hospital on Monday March 31, 2014 in Ho. The specialist doctors are members of Ghana cleft foundation whose main task is to help address the problems associated with cleft lip and palate in Ghana through advocacy.

According to the President of the foundation, Prof Peter Donkor the idea for establishing the Ghana Cleft Foundation originated in 2005 from discussions among members of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Cleft Clinic. These discussions were informed by the firsthand experiences of the hardships faced by families of children born with cleft lip and palate.  The Cleft Clinic attracts patients from all parts of the country, majority of whom are from low income backgrounds. These families faced a great deal of prejudice from their communities which understood very little about cleft lip and palate and were largely treated as outcasts. He added that with the formation of the foundation and support from donors, they were able to put smiles on people with cleft lips and palate over the years and as part of their 10years anniversary, they have embarked on this outreach program to extend their services to the door steps of patients. Professor Peter Donkor noted that the team has so far been to Sunyani, Tamale, Wa, Tachiman, Takoradi and said the good aspect of the foundation is that most of the doctors were Ghanaians trained in the Ghana.

As the time of our visit, the vice president of the foundation, Doctor Gyikua Plange-Phule confirmed they have registered 35 patients so far and encouraged people living with this condition to come for the entirely free treatments. She also thanked MTN and Smile Train International for their support and called on other organizations and individual to support their course.

The patients we spoke to expressed their gratitude for the gesture and also encouraged their counterpart to get hold of this opportunity to pay farewell to their condition and smile to the world.