During a press conference at the fifth Annual Scientific Conference in Kano, Professor Fadikemi Ogini, President of the Nigerian Association For Cleft Lip And Palate, urged the public to cease stigmatizing or harming children with cleft lip and palate.
He emphasized the importance of providing proper treatment for these individuals so they can lead normal lives like everyone else.
The conference’s theme, ‘Standardising Cleft Care In Nigeria’, aims to enhance the quality of life for those affected by cleft lip and palate.
Ogini disclosed that the association is working towards ensuring that individuals with the condition can readily access standardized treatment throughout the country.
He said, “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 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 palate, bring them out for comprehensive care and they can live a normal life” she explained.
Professor Peter Donko, former President of the West African College of Surgeons, highlighted in his keynote address that while cleft lip and palate is a global concern, Africa is disproportionately affected due to the continent’s struggles with poverty, resource scarcity, and inadequate healthcare workforce to address the issue effectively.
He noted , “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.”
