Cleft durbar and picnic   held to climax 10th Annual Awareness Week in Kumasi

An appeal has gone to corporate bodies and philanthropists to collaborate with the Ghana Cleft Foundation to provide necessary services to patients with that condition. This will help them to live freely devoid of stigmatization. 

The President of the Ghana Cleft Foundation, Professor Peter Donkor made the appeal during a durbar and picnic to climax the 10th Annual Awareness Week of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Cleft Clinic, in Kumasi. It was on the theme, “Freedom from Cleft, Freedom from Stigma”. 

Prof. Donkor disclosed that the cleft patient is cared for through voluntary contribution of various health experts such as dentists, nutritionists, pediatricians and social workers. 

According to him, the focus of the Ghana Cleft Foundation is to use local health experts to treat Ghanaian children who are suffering from such deformity. He disclosed that for the past 10 years, the Cleft Clinic has treated about one thousand 600 patients. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Professor Ohene-Adjei was unhappy that  a considerable number of children with cleft are not identified and given the needed surgical care to correct their deformities. 

This he noted is due mainly to unavailability of medical facilities and expertise and other negative socio-cultural practices and beliefs. 

Prof. Ohene-Adjei explained that the end result of this development is that children who could have been helped are either abandoned as spirit children or rejected as social misfits across the length and breadth of the country by their parents due to the stigma associated with their conditions.
 
He used the occasion to encourage the media to help to reduce the needless pain and stigmatization associated with cleft by constantly educating the public about the existence of help for such deformities at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. 

He commended “Smile Train” a partner organization which has helped the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Cleft Clinic with funding for free surgeries and outreaches to the regions.  

GBC