By Chimezie Godfrey
No fewer than 30,000 Nigerians have been treated of congenital disorder known as cleft lip and/ or palate free of charge by Smile Train, a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO.
This was disclosed by the Public Relations and Communication Manager, Africa, Smile Train, Emily Manjeru, on Monday in Abuja during a two day Nationwide Media Workshop organised by Smile Train to train and empower journalists on effective dissemination of relevant information that will assist citizens access treatment.
Manjeru declared that Smile Train is the World’s largest cleft-focused organisation which provides training, funding and resources to empower local medical professionals in over 70 countries to provide 100 per cent free, safe, timely and comprehensive cleft surgeries and other forms of essential cleft care in their own communities.
She explained that Cleft lip and/ or palate are birth defects that occur when a baby’s lip or mouth does not form properly during pregnancy.
Manjeru revealed that every 3 Minutes 1 Child Born With Cleft Lip, and/ or Palate Worldwide, adding that most of these children have difficulties in eating, breathing and speaking.
According to her, in Africa alone over 32,000 children are born with cleft lip and/ or palate annually, while also revealing that over 30,000 cleft patients have been treated across the country.
She said,”Here in Nigeria I think we have treated over 30,000 patients since we started our program in 2008. The reason why Nigeria is because we are in close relationship with the government to start having real data that is localized in getting patients for cleft.
“We have develop strategies so that our medical experts can give us infoemation, and to convert this information into policy.”
Speaking at the workshop, a Plastic Surgeon with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Abuja, Dr Amina Abubakar said that there were no known causes of cleft conditions, but mentioned that some of the identified causes are related to genetics and environmental factors such as malnutrition, smoking and intake of alcohol by mothers during pregnancy.
Dr Abubakar cited cases where cleft patients are treated like slaves and restricted from accessing medical care for beliefs that they are cursed, which has instigated cultural practices like stigmatisation, banishment, abuse, and in some cases, starvation to death as commonly found among localities of people living with the cleft conditions.
“Cleft conditions come with speech and hearing problems, breathing issues and inability to thrive among others. However, the conditions can be treated through surgeries as offered free of charge by Smile Train, and surgery cases record almost 100 per cent success stories,” she said.
In his goodwill message, the Chairman of the FCT Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Emmanuel Ogbeche thanked Smile Train for the opportunity and for developing the capacity of journalists to be up to speed in reporting the cases of cleft accurately, especially as the media in Nigeria has the challenge of capacity building.
“Nigeria has a huge deficit in terms of health budgeting and when organisations such as Smile Train fill in the gap, it helps us in providing affordable and quality health delivery to our people in dire need.
“This is the NUJ saying thank you for what you’re doing. We hope that we continue to engage and have more journalists participate in this sort of training so that we can have journalists that are qualified in reporting and spread advocacy and awareness.”
Mr Ogbeche therefore encouraged the journalists to take the training very seriously to become advocates and pace-setters in reporting cleft conditions and avail opportunities for treatment to Nigerians who do not have access to treatment.
