Stop stigmatising, killing children with cleft lips’

Nigerians have been called upon to stop stigmatising or killing children with cleft lip and palate as they can be treated and live a normal life like others.

The President of the Nigerian Association For Cleft Lip And Palate, Prof. Fadikemi Ogini, made the call while addressing newsmen on Wednesday during the fifth Annual Scientific Conference held in Kano.

Speaking on the theme of the conference, “Standardising Cleft Care In Nigeria,” .Ogini explained that the aim is to improve quality of life for individuals affected with cleft lip and palate.

She revealed that part of the association’s plan is to ensure that those affected can access standard treatment anywhere across the country.

“What we hope to achieve at the end of the event is to bring every cleft lip and palate service provider to a point where we are able to provide quality care that can be comparable across the nation.

“So, that you are in one part of the country and I am in another part of the country does not mean that we will receive different levels of care. We want care to be uniform, we want it standardised with everybody doing exactly the same thing and offering high quality care to all patients across the nation.

“To Nigerians, I will say those who have children born with cleft lip and palate, those who see individuals with cleft lip and palate should not stigmatise them because they can be cared for and they can live a normal life.

“I will also call on well-meaning Nigerians who have the means to support cleft care to approach the Nigerian Association of Cleft Lip and Palates and ask for how they might be able to help provide care for these children.

“Don’t kill children with cleft lip and palate, don’t stigmatise children with cleft, lip and pzlate, bring them out for comprehensive care and they can live a normal life” she said.

In his keynote address at the conference, the immediate past President of the West African College of Surgeons, Prof. Peter Donko, explained that cleft lip and palate is a global issue but Africa is particularly affected because of all the issues with poverty, lack of resources and adequate manpower to deal with the issue.

“We are here to challenge ourselves to work with organizations like Smile Train which have been funding cleft treatment for many years and also with our governments to take the initiative forward, provide resources for treating these children who are unfortunate enough to be born with this congenital defect.

“We believe that we must also change the way we care for them. We should not only focus on surgical repair of the defects that we see,” he added.