A new venture has started between CLEFT and the Centre for Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery In Sulaimania, the Kurdish region of Iraq to help develop multidisciplinary care for children born with cleft lip and palate and associated conditions.
Initially, this collaboration would primarily be to teach and train the surgeons and hospital staff. There is one speech therapist who is only able to work for one day in the cleft centre so this is one area that CLEFT could make a difference in. CLEFT may also be able to assist in providing equipment and teaching material. We have recently launched an appeal to raise £50,000 to buy a C-Arm (a piece of anaesthetic equipment) for the hospital.
Appeal to buy a C-Arm
Sulaimania's troubled past means that there are many children and adults with untreated clefts or with clefts that have been operated on inadequately. Click the link above to read further and watch our new film by Paul Whittaker to see what the situation is there and how the team copes. Read more
CLEFT has recently been involved with visiting the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan where conditions such as cleft lip and palate have been neglected in recent years. Read more