CLEFT’s Ongoing Work in Sulaimania

CLEFT has been actively supporting cleft care in Sulaimania since 2012. During Brian Sommerlad's November 2024 visit, he worked alongside surgeons at the Emergency Hospital, using the operating microscope generously provided by a private donor and the C-arm X-ray machine funded by CLEFT. The equipment was vital in assessing palate function for a patient, enabling the team to successfully perform a palate re-repair.

Left: the cleft operating theatre and microscope provide by CLEFT; Right: The C-arm seen through the viewing window– also provided by CLEFT thanks to a private donor

The cleft team and Mr Sommerlad ran a busy clinic where 65 patients were seen. Among them was a family of five – both parents and their three children, all born with cleft palates. The mother and Zierk, her eldest son aged 11, had previously undergone repairs which were unfortunately unsuccessful, requiring further surgery and speech therapy to improve their speech. Mohammed, aged 3, and Moosa, aged 6, both had unrepaired cleft palates. Both boys’ palates were repaired on the same day, marking a significant step forward for the family.

Left: Zierk, Moosa and Mohamed; Right: Mum with Moosa and Mohamed after surgery

When cleft palate repairs are carried out later than the ideal age, speech therapy is essential to help children develop intelligible and natural speech patterns. However, Iraq currently has no formal speech and language therapy training institutions. Nozad, a trained speech and language therapist working with Kurdistan Save the Children, is the only specialist in the country. During Mr Sommerlad's visit, Marie Pinkstone and Julie Davies, speech and language therapists from the UK, joined via Zoom to support the clinic. This collaboration marks the beginning of what we hope will become a significant and lasting partnership.

A key milestone of the visit was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on 14th November between CLEFT and Kurdistan Save the Children. Brian Sommerlad, on behalf of CLEFT, and Sara Rashid, President of Kurdistan Save the Children, formalised our shared commitment to improving cleft care in Iraq. Looking ahead, we aim to help establish Iraq’s first speech and language therapy faculty and explore the creation of a dedicated multidisciplinary cleft care centre. (Banner image: Brian Sommerlad with Sara Rashid)

CLEFT remains committed to delivering sustainable solutions that transform the lives of children and families affected by cleft conditions in Iraq and beyond.

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We are CLEFT, we support cleft lip and palate teams in poorer countries by working with local surgeons and other specialists to help them develop high quality multidisciplinary cleft centres. We do this by visiting and working with them regularly, helping to provide education and training and donating much needed equipment. Our goal is to help local teams so that children born with clefts in these countries will have the same opportunities as those in the UK.

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