Online Reporter
Patience Maturure
Herald Correspondent
A team of medical experts has started screening children at Sally Mugabe Children’s Hospital in Harare for free cleft lip and palate surgery.
In a interview with The Herald yesterday, medical director of Celebration Health Dr Freeblessing Murahwa said the camp began with screenings yesterday and repair surgeries will be conducted from today to Friday.
“We are working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care and our partners Leap Global Missions from the United States,” he said.
“Today, we are doing screening for children with cleft lip and palate and tomorrow we will start doing the operations.”
The initiative will transform the lives of 50 children with cleft lip and palate through corrective surgery, cutting back the backlog of cases that has arisen.
“What has pushed us to initiate this programme is to try and assist around 250 children that are born with cleft lip and palate.
“And the regular surgeries that happen in our hospitals every week are not sufficient to complete all the cases.
“So with this team coming, we hope to do a high number of cases in one week.”
Dr Murahwa said the goal is to enable children with cleft lip and palate to undergo corrective surgery as early as possible, allowing them to seamlessly integrate into society.
“All the theatres are dedicated to doing the surgeries for this one week. So we want to make sure that there’s no backlog of these surgeries by doing these sort of camps.
“We want to urge the parents of children with these conditions to come out. We usually send out our information via social media, via SMS platforms, with various networks,” he said.
Leap Global Mission medical director Dr Ale Garcia de Mitchell said the 15-year partnership was a testament to the power of dedicated collaboration and a shared commitment to delivering life-changing care to those in need.
“Fifteen years ago, Celebration identified a need in the country for this particular type of surgery for babies, patients, kids and even adults with cleft lip and palate because it wasn’t treated with frequency and there are quite a bit of patients.
“So, the foundation has made commitments to go to countries that have a need for that particular type of surgery, not as a one-time visit, but as a partnership”
She said recognising the need for this specialised care, the foundation was committed to a long-term partnership, sending a team to the country annually to conduct surgeries and train local medical professionals.
“Zimbabwe is a special country and now we’ve been here for 15 years. Coming every year, but now for a period of a week.”
Peter Tanyanyiwa