In India, cleft lip and/or palate doesn’t just affect a person’s nutrition, breathing, speech and appearance. It can devastate their potential. Cleft palate is a social stigma that impacts many dimensions of the person’s life. It translates to intense difficulty acquiring a job, vastly diminished prospects for living independently, and less likelihood of marriage, all of which may result in the person being ostracized, alienated, and abandoned by their community.
The procedure to treat clefts isn’t the barrier to changing these lives; the surgery itself is relatively safe and can be completed in as little as 45 minutes. The main issue is the availability of resources. For example, in the Indian state of West Bengal, there are not nearly enough qualified doctors and medical care professionals to meet the persistent needs for cleft surgery. Currently, it is estimated that less than half of cleft affected individuals in West Bengal receive corrective surgery, meaning thousands of individuals are stuck in a life of poverty and poor health as the result of a treatable condition.
To combat the issue of resource availability and increase the capacity to bring this surgery to more patients in West Bengal, the Barzilai Foundation is teaming up with Smile Train India. Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, has been supporting cleft care in local communities for over 25 years, changing the lives of over 2 million children with clefts globally, with 750,000+ surgeries supported in India alone.
Through this partnership, over one thousand frontline health care workers will be trained on cleft identification and care, which will drive referrals for corrective surgery. A further 40-60 skilled nurses and anesthetists will be trained through an intensive 5-day program on cleft best practices, to increase readiness to administer treatments. In addition, the program will fund up to 150 cleft procedures for cases where cost is a barrier.
“In this part of India, one procedure can translate to a lifetime of change,” said Brandon Sosa, CEO of the Barzilai Foundation. “It improves their health, removes social stigma, makes school a possibility, and directly impacts their ability to escape poverty. This partnership with Smile Train is going to hand people’s potential back to them. We’re proud to be part of that.”
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