Corrective surgeries for 31 children

Lea Mutanda

Thirty-one children successfully underwent free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries recently conducted at Harare Central Hospital by a team of United States based surgeons and nurses under Celebration Health.

While 100 beneficiaries had been targeted, some failed the screening process owing to various reasons, including being underweight.

Celebration Health is the philanthropic medical arm of Celebration Ministries International, founded by Pastor Tom Deuschle.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Celebration Health director Dr Freeblessing Murahwa said, “Doctors from the USA performed free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries at Harare Central Hospital. About 70 patients came for screening and 31 managed to be operated on. We did not get the numbers we wanted. Most of the children that came through were turned away. The patients turned away did not meet the required qualities. Some of the babies were too young (less than three months old), while some were underweight.”

Dr Murahwa said the doctors also equipped the parents with information on how to take care of their children.

“Minors with cleft lip and cleft palate have a challenge in suckling. Their parents got information on how to feed them,” he said.

“We also gave some special feeding bottles to the mothers to assist them in feeding their babies.”

Patients came from across the country and Dr Murahwa said the programme suffered a setback with regards to securing accommodation for the patients.