NGO Smile Train offers free cleft lip and palate treatment in Togo

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Extract from the article: The charity Smile Train offers corrective surgery to children with cleft lips and palates. On January 19 and 20, 2022, it organized a training and exchange workshop for a dozen Togolese journalists. The objective is to sensitize these media professio

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The charity Smile Train offers corrective surgery to children with cleft lips and palates. On January 19 and 20, 2022, it organized a training and exchange workshop for a dozen Togolese journalists. The objective is to sensitize these media professionals on cleft lip and palate, and especially on the complete and free care of this pathology in Togo. From now on, these journalists are called upon to educate the population so that they become aware of the reality of this disease and to contribute to behavioral changes through impact communication.  

Cleft lip and palate are congenital facial malformations that create a gap in the continuity of the upper lip, gum, alveolar bone, palate and veil. Worldwide, one in 700 children is born with a cleft lip or palate. This congenital pathology is widespread, but not well known by the population. Especially in remote areas, it is wrongly considered as witchcraft or the work of voodoo. Cleft lip and palate can be genetic, related to another pathology or drug intoxication.

In Togo, at least 120 cases were treated in 2022, according to Prof. Grégoire Akakpo-Numado, Head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the CHU Campus of Lomé. A figure, which according to the specialist, is likely to increase with the awareness and information of the population, a role that the media are called to play.

The media called to play their part

Involving the media in awareness will allow the population to be informed.  Smile Train's expectations specifically for the media are to be able to communicate regularly and more often on this disease. It is a question of bringing the media to become impregnated with these congenital diseases, to demystify them and to sensitize the population on the multidisciplinary, complete and free care which takes into account nutrition, speech therapy, orthodontics, psychology.

The leaders of Smile Train, notably Dr. Nina Capo-Chichi, West Africa Representative of the organization and the head of communication in Africa, Mrs. Emily Manjeru, called on media professionals to show great ethics and respect the dignity of patients in the treatment of information related to these malformations that offend the sensibility.

For Dr. Sesime Sanni, Pediatric Surgeon at the CHP of Anèho, journalists must inform the population about the existence of an adequate treatment to cure the pathology, to play down the disease and to direct the patients towards the health centers. « We expect that information is shared, that communication is made and that the citizen at the bottom of his village has the information that cleft lip and palate are taken care of and that this citizen knows the centers of care of these pathologies in Togo », she stressed.

There is a great stigma attached to the victims of this disease. A mother who gives birth to a child with this disease is rejected by the community. Moreover, children with clefts are killed because they are considered curses. The media must therefore play a role in raising awareness and awakening communities.

Free care in Togo

Cleft lips and palates are treated by reconstructive surgery and patients see an immediate transformation. Today, the treatment of this pathology is free in Togo.  « The patient pays nothing, thanks to the NGO Smile Train, which provides us with everything we need for free. In addition to the drugs, they also provide us with the necessary equipment so that we can work at ease. So it is thanks to Smile Train that the care is free for the patients. There is no reason to carry a disease for life. There is no reason to drag a malformation like cleft lip and palate that can be treated for free in Togo », said Professor Akakpo-Numado.

« Today, we have the competence at the level of the Togolese medical staff who takes good care of these malformations. The results are there, we have already taken care of a hundred children on the Togolese territory since 2022 and we have good and promising results. So there is no reason not to bring a child suffering from cleft lip and palate to the hospital for treatment », said Dr. Sanni Sesime.

In Togo, three centers are available to provide free care for cleft lip and palate patients. They are the CHU Campus of Lomé, the CHU Kara and CHP Aného.

Smile Train is an international children's charity that provides reconstructive surgery and comprehensive cleft lip and palate care completely free of charge to children in over 90 countries. Their sustainable model empowers local doctors to provide cleft lip and palate care in their own communities.

William O.