Smile Train
Read MoreThis young woman is due for her second surgery to repair a cleft palate. Cleft lip (cheiloschisis) and cleft palate (palatoschisis) remain a serious issue in developing countries, where millions of people, mostly children, try to exist the best they can. Most cannot eat or speak properly, some aren’t allowed to attend school, or even hold a job.
In America alone, more than 5,000 babies are born each year with a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate, making it one of the most common major birth defects. Orofacial clefts are openings in the lip or palate (roof of mouth) that are caused by an incomplete development during early fetal formation. In addition to various cultural and social stigmas, associated problems include: feeding issues, middle ear infections, hearing loss, dental abnormalities and speech difficulties.
Children born with a cleft lip and palate frequently have dental problems. These include small, missing, teeth or malpositioned teeth. This may led to a defect in the gums or the bone that supports the teeth. Defects of the ridge can displace, tip, or rotate permanent teeth, or prevent permanent teeth from coming in properly
A Haitian mother with her daughter waiting to be seen by a volunteer pediatrician. In some cultures, marriage plays a vital role in the economic well being of a family. Often the subject of ridicule, children born with a cleft are the least likely to wed, thus becoming a financial burden to the already desperate living conditions of a household.
Patient pre-screening in Haiti. Clefts remain a serious issue in developing countries, where millions of people, mostly children, try to exist the best they can. Most cannot eat or speak properly, some aren’t allowed to attend school or even hold a job. Those suffering with an unrepaired cleft tend to live in shame and isolation. The deformity often goes untreated because the family is too poor to pay for corrective surgery.
I came across this young boy in an IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp in Mogadishu, Somalia while documenting another project. Due to my affiliation with Smile Train, I was able to help facilitate his corrective surgery with the help of the head surgeon at Medina Hospital in Mogadishu. This image was taken less than an hour after his surgery.