A special clinic that operates and treats cleft lip and palate deformities free of charge has performed and treated 7,000 victims of the deformities in a record one year. The revelation was made during celebrations held to mark the milestones accomplished.

The facility which is a referral clinic that provides surgeries to children, young adults, and the aged boasts of its outstanding performance to have done more successful surgeries on cleft lip and palate. BelaRisu Medical Centre was opened in September last year, in partnership with Smile Train.

It is the first standalone comprehensive cleft care centre in East and Central Africa that is dedicated to the provision of free cleft services to the less privileged and in most need across the Country and Africa.

It has successfully provided surgeries to both children and adults, nutritional support, orthodontics, and speech therapy, alongside training health professionals from other facilities on cleft management.
Speaking during the first anniversary celebrations Dr Martin Kamau, CEO of the BelaRisu Foundation, confirmed that the clinic has performed 7,000 surgeries related to cleft lip and palate since it was launched in September last year.

“We believe in providing life-changing, dignified and hope restoring surgeries to victims affected by craniofacial deformities and that is what we have thrived to do in the last year,” he said.

Chief Guest, Nominated Senator Veronica Maina, applauded the foundation for coming in to help children and even adults who, without the surgery, would have been stigmatised by society.

“This is a new dawn for Kenyans born with this deformity because now they will no longer have to dig deeper into their pockets as they try to restore their smiles,” said the senator.

In the spirit of continuing the good work, she highlighted that Nairobi County and the Government would work closely with the foundation to ensure that it got necessary support to drive its agenda in transforming lives of children and adults born with cleft.

Actual incidences

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one in every 1,600 babies are born with cleft palate. About one in every 2,800 babies is born with cleft lip without a palate. While one in every 1,700 babies is born with a cleft palate daily.

Whereas there are varying opinions on the actual incidences of clefts, most experts agree that individuals of the African decent have the lowest incidence of approximately one in 1,200 births.

In Kenya, Kenya National of Bureau Statistics (KNBS) estimates that one in every 1,300 births, with six children being born with cleft lip and palate every day.

Among the invited guests were survivors who were happy to share their stories of how the surgery has been able to transform their lives and ensure that their smiles are made beautiful again.

“The first time I had about the foundation, I automatically thought of how they would be able to make my baby Wendo have a beautiful smile in a month or even weeks,” said Simon Munene a father to one of the beneficiaries.

Although he had started of the journey way before he learnt about the foundation, it had been a completely hectic one with empty promises from different medics.

“Anytime I thought I had gotten a solution something cropped up; on several occasions I was told that the baby’s blood count was low and even on some occasions there was no surgeon to conduct the surgery,” he recalled.

After so many trips of traversing counties in search of a medical solution, Munene finally decided to seek treatment at BelaRisu which offered the surgery for free.