Ghana cleft Foundation marked Ghana�s 55th Independence Day anniversary Tuesday by offering free surgeries to 15 children with various lip deformities at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
Ideally, the surgery could have cost each patient amounts ranging from $500 to $700. In a chat with DAILY GUIDE, Dr. Gyekua Plange-Rhule a representative of the foundation said the free surgery was her group�s widow�s mite to help the innocent children.
Formed in 2006, the GCF which has the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as its life patron provides care, support and awareness to people suffering from cleft lips.
Dr. Plange-Rhule said as part of the awareness campaign members of the GCF embarked on a health walk in Kumasi on Monday to sensitize the populace about the deformity.
She decried situations where children suffering with cleft lips are discriminated against and looked down upon as if they were not important to society.
She said having a cleft lip is not a death sentence, stressing there are always experts with organizations like the GCF to correct lip deformities. She consequently appealed to parents and guardians whose children have lip deformities not to hide them but rather bring them to the hospital because there is a solution to their problems.
Touching on the cleft lip situation in Ghana, Dr. Plange-Rhule disclosed that roughly about 300 children are born with the deformity annually, noting that at KATH about 20 to 50 new born babies with the condition are recorded every week.
Dr. Mrs. Plange-Rhule indicated that these children face difficulties eating, speaking and worst of all are usually rejected by society.
To save this situation, she disclosed that the GCF was formed to raise money to help reform lip deformities and enable sufferers live happy lives free from discrimination.
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