New smiles for children born with lip defect

This past weekend, at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha, children born with cleft lips underwent corrective surgery thanks to a collaboration between the Eastern Cape Department of Health and Operation Smile South Africa.

In order to screen patients for surgery on Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23, a group of 20 Operation Smile volunteers—including plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anesthetists, pediatricians, nurses, dentists, speech therapists, and a psychosocial specialist—collaborated with the hospital’s medical staff on Friday, October 21.

The Eastern Cape Premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane joined the Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth to see the life-altering operations for cleft lip patients.

A total of 23 children and 1 adult with a cleft lip have had their smiles effectively repaired thanks to the collaboration with Operation Smile South Africa.

Mabuyane thanked Operation Smile and vowed to forge new partnerships to ensure that more children and adults could have this transformative procedure.

“I have told the MEC that we really need a memorandum of agreement with them so that we continue with skills transfer, on-site training, getting their specialists and professors coming here on an ongoing basis so that the work continues.”

Meth claimed that a lot of people have already benefited from this wonderful cooperation, which they hope will last for many more years.

“This partnership has restored people’s smiles through the life-changing surgeries. We are grateful for such a partnership as we cannot afford to deliver some services alone. Indeed, working together we can do more,” said the MEC.

The Executive Director for Operation Smile South Africa said, “Operation Smiles believes everyone deserves access to safe surgery and comprehensive cleft care.

“Each young patient and their parent or guardian will receive the highest quality of care at no cost. This includes transport, medical evaluations, surgeries and post-surgical evaluations such as speech and dental.”

Malihlo Salukazana was one of the parents whose child underwent surgery and benefited from it. She expressed her gratitude to the doctors who operated on her child.

Salukazana said that her child had trouble speaking and eating. “Since he is doing Grade R, nurses who visited his school wrote a letter so he can visit the hospital for speech therapy. I told the teachers that my child was already booked for a corrective surgery, but the date of the operation was still unknown.”

Salukazana said what broke her heart was that other school children were teasing her child, saying they cannot speak.

A memorandum of understanding between the Eastern Cape Department of Health and Operation Smile South Africa will enable more children and adults with cleft lip and palate to have the life-changing operation across the Eastern Cape.