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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Health Reporter
A team of local surgeons will this week perform free surgeries on 50 children with cleft lip and cleft palate at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital.
The surgeries are being funded by United States-based Leap Global through Celebration Health.
Head of the team of maxillofacial surgeons, Dr Wayne Manana, said there had been a huge turnout for screening on Sunday since this was the first cleft lip and palate camp since last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have identified 50 children who qualify for the operation because typically the surgery takes about two hours so we can only do 10 surgeries per day. Unfortunately there were so many children that turned up, but we will only not be able to assist all of them,” he said.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are birth defects that occur when a baby’s lip or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy. Together, these birth defects commonly are called “orofacial clefts”.
About 300 children are born with these defects every year in Zimbabwe.
Dr Manana said traditionally, the country offers free surgeries every year during five camps in partnership with different organisations which cover about 250 cases outside the regular theatre lists in hospitals.
“Cleft is a devastating condition for the mother and for the child as they grow up because of the reaction of the community when they see the child for the first time. We normally say the face carries the identity of the person so when someone has a defect on the face they have lost their identity and integration into the community becomes a challenge.
“Although the disease is not life threatening, we normally say it is one of the priority surgeries. In other countries by the age of three months all these operations would have been done, but sadly we are still operating at a level where children grow even up to 16 years without having the operation,” he added.
He said most of the children that came forward for the operations were from remote areas and most of them could not afford to have the surgery done at private institutions.
Government hospitals offer the operation free of charge for children below the age of five and at a minimum charge for those above. However, due to the long waiting lists, it takes time for children to get the procedure done.
Celebration Health director Dr Freeblessing Murahwa said the corrective surgery was important to help the children to fit into their communities as they grow up.
“Cleft lip and cleft palate means a child cannot feed properly and is not really welcomed and accepted into the communities so the child faces difficulties in integrating into society. We want to make sure the children have a good start to their lives and don’t continue to suffer,” he said.
He said Celebration Health usually sponsors both private and public health centres to perform the surgeries to ensure that every child
The surgery can cost up to US$2 500 at private institutions.
Most of the children stay in remote areas and had to travel two days earlier to get a slot at the operating table.
Mrs Eukairea Chimhoko from Makonde said she was happy her child would get the surgery as it would afford him a normal life.
“My child was born in 2019 and this is the fourth time that I have come here for him to get the operation. I am happy that we will be getting the help we need.
“We have been accused of witchcraft in our community because people do not understand that a child can be born with this condition,” she said.
Ms Tatenda Machawira said her child could neither feed nor speak properly due to the condition. She expressed hope that the operation would enable her to do both.
For Mrs Tendai Ngidhi Matyorauta from Chimanimani, this will be the third operation on her twins who were both born with the condition.
“In 2018 I gave birth to twins and one had cleft lip and the other had double cleft lip and palate. At first I didn’t understand but the doctors counselled me and explained how it happens and I accepted my children as they were.
“The first operation was done when they were three-months-old and the second one was done last year. This is the third surgery for one of the twins who had developed a small hole on the palate so I had to come back. I am happy that they will lead a normal life after this operation,” she said.
Online Reporter