She was her parents only daughter but born with a cleft lips. As is common with the children born with cleft lips, she was not able to eat or speak properly and suffered from malnutrition. She was taken as cursed by society and frequently bullied at school thus isolated from her peers. Her parents could not afford cleft surgery and were helpless as the plight of their daughter; we can only imagine how devastating this must have felt.
Shocking, isn’t it? But cleft lips are treatable and Al Mustafa specializes in cleft surgery.
It costs just £150 to give smile back on the faces of children like Sarah.
Alkhamdulilah, Thanks to generous donors like yourself, AMWT was able to carry out free cleft surgery for Sarah in 2011. Just one week after the surgery Sarah beamed’’ Now I can go to school and play with my friends’’. Remember, it cost just £150 to give Sarah back her smile.
Her story is real, and it’s happening to children in countries around the world right now. According to World Health Organization, child with cleft lips born every 2 minute in the world. There are approximately 170,000 children born with clefts annually and 90% sufferers can't afford surgery. There are 10000 babies are born with clefts like Sarah in Pakistan every year.
Al Mustafa is dedicated to help the children like Sarah. We believe that every child born with a cleft anywhere in the world has the opportunity to live a full productive life with dignity in the society. We have helped hundreds of children to smile like Sarah in 2011.
AMWT organises free plastic surgery camps for treatment of children born with cleft lip and palate once a year. Camps are arranged in the poorest parts of the world where the higher number of clef lip and palate cases are located. Such as Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda. Each camp carries out up to 50 surgeries. The surgeries are carried out at camps and complex cases are referred to the network of Al Mustafa medical centres or nearby private hospitals.
AMWT also organize seminars and public lectures for awareness of this issue. These events help to increase the interaction of cleft patients with the society and reduce their feelings of deprivation and isolation.
