A Foundation designed to mobilise adequate financial resources to facilitate access to cleft surgeons for children with defects at their lips and palate is being established in Kumasi.
The foundation, which has Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, as the chief patron, would be launched on Saturday, July 5, 2008 at the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi.
With the requisite financial support from the public, including churches, institutions, corporate bodies, firms, industries, among others, children who would otherwise have died, or grown up with permanent deformities, due to the stigmas attached to their predicaments, would receive medical care that would correct their deformities.
Cleft refers to children born with splits in their lips, gums or in the roofs of their mouths.
The condition is referred to as cleft lip or palate, depending on which part of the body was affected, and victims with such deformities find it difficult to live normal lifestyles due to the challenges they face in their daily lives.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview on the significance of the launch of the foundation, the President of the foundation, Professor Peter Donkor, said many children were born with both cleft lip and palate, which affected their growth.
"Children with such deformities mostly face many challenges in life to the extent that some of them are rejected not only by their family members, but also their neighbours, community and school mates."
"Rejection by their families, even to the point of losing their lives, can be a major problem, and those allowed to live are laughed at and bullied in school where many of them are forced to drop out from school with its attendant consequences," Prof. Donkor said.
He said deformity had no barrier, because children from both the poor and the rich families could be affected.
He said it was to address such problems that the Cleft Foundation was being launched on Saturday, July 5, 2008 with the hope of generating adequate financial resources to address the concern of babies and adults with such deformities.
Prof. Donkor said "with financial support from the public, a child's life can be transformed from one of shame and embarrassment to one of acceptance and fulfilment through a relatively minor surgical operation".
He said parents who failed to seek medical care for such children might be ignorant of the fact that the deformity could be corrected, or had no financial means of paying for the cost of the operation which he put at GH¢300,00.
“Such children are forced to grow up with low self-esteem, lacking the confidence needed to fulfil their potential in life," Prof. Donkor noted.
The president of the the foundation said the KATH had established a Cleft Palate Clinic with a team of health professionals who treated children with cleft.
“Since the clinic began operation in 2003, we have repaired and provided care and support to over 400 children with cleft lip and palate, with many adults also benefiting from the gesture," Prof. Donkor said.
He said limited financial resources had prevented the team of health professionals from the clinic from reaching out to many children with such deformities and correct them to enable them live normal lives.
“The success story of those who have had their deformities corrected over the years is an indication that with public support, the clinic would be up to the task of reaching out to all victims of cleft and palate deformities to give them the requisite opportunity to be fully integrated into society,“ he stressed.
This, he said, would enable them explore their potential to the fullest, build their capacity in a more effective and efficient way and contribute more meaningfully to the nation’s sustainable socio-economic development.
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