WHAT CAUSES CLEFt PALATE, CLEFT LIP?

[Traveler]

I just watched a heartbreaking program about children in 3rd world nations with unimaginably disfiguring cleft palates.
Doctors from the U.S. and Canada form teams and fly into those countries, with all of the medical equipment needed to perform plastic surgeries on hundreds of children.

As word spreads about the free surgery, parents bring their children, often walking a hundred miles, to the hospital. The program said that many of those parents have never even seen a hospital, yet so great is their love for their children that they are more than willing to trust total strangers with the care of their child.

On the 1st day of the examinations huge crowds of people bearing their children form outside the hospital and wait in the blazing sun for their names to be called. Unfortunately, money for supplies and time is limited and so on the day of the program 63 children had to be turned away. Heartbreaking !

But for the kids who are accepted into surgery they are transformed, almost magically into normal smiling children.
What a life changing event for those poor kids. Until the surgery they had been laughed at, called terrible names, made fun of by other kids in the village. In those places it is often thought by villagers that the child has been cursed by the devil.

Words can not adequately express how emotional it was to watch that program. I'm a fairly stoic guy but I must admit I cried while watching the heartbreak and the joy of transformation.


http://operationsmile.org

 

[Lara]

I find your thread to be very touching, Traveler. Since this is a discussion forum, it's quite appropriate to open it up for discussion instead of just googling.

I inherited my late mother's desk and in the bottom drawer I found two before and after photos of the child she sponsored through "Smile Train" to have the cleft palate surgery. His name is Marawan Fareh, 4 years old and the surgery was performed at the Al Rhama Hospital, Djibouti. In her desk drawer this shall forever remain. It's an incredible life-changing transformation for these little children. Thank you for posting a link where we can all help if we choose to.

I'll post a pic if I can with my phone...sometimes that doesn't work. My daughter, the photographer is now gone for a few months to Europe so I don't have her help with photos.

 

[Traveler]

I find your thread to be very touching, Traveler. Since this is a discussion forum, it's quite appropriate to open it up for discussion instead of just googling.

I inherited my late mother's desk and in the bottom drawer I found two before and after photos of the child she sponsored through "Smile Train" to have the cleft palate surgery. His name is Marawan Fareh, 4 years old and the surgery was performed at the Al Rhama Hospital, Djibouti. In her desk drawer this shall forever remain. It's an incredible life-changing transformation for these little children. Thank you for posting a link where we can all help if we choose to.

I'll post a pic if I can with my phone...sometimes that doesn't work. My daughter, the photographer is now gone for a few months to Europe so I don't have her help with photos.

I wish you could have seen the PBS program. The joy in the hearts of the mothers and father who saw their baby immediately after surgery, all healed, was very emotional for me. They cried and cried out of sheer relief and happiness.

My heart bled, however, for those poor parents who had to be turned away because there were just too many deformed kids for the doctors and nurses to cope with.

Thank you for not yelling at me. I was just over-come with emotion.

 

[Marie5656]

​Since it happens so often in impoverished countries, I wonder if it has anything to do with diet, or hereditary.

 

[Traveler]

​Since it happens so often in impoverished countries, I wonder if it has anything to do with diet, or hereditary.

In the link that I posted, there is a photo of a mother, father and baby. All 3 of them with cleft palates/lips.

Jeez, that program really got to me.

 

[Traveler]

On the program many stories were told about kids who never went to school, or played with the village kids, or even go outside, all because of the cruelty of the villagers. Instead the kids hid in their houses, ashamed of being "different". Some would not even look into the doctors eyes, during the first physical exam, because they were afraid of seeing hatred.

 

[Lara]

My phone takes a long time to transfer a pic but here it finally is. This is the little boy my mother sponsored through "Smile Train".

 

[Traveler]

Thank you for sharing that Lara.