Surgical mission to Java

The ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, who died in 1324 BC, is a historical figure known to many for the sensational artwork found in his tomb, including a spectacular death mask. What is less known is that the young deceased, like many people living today, was born and lived with a cleft palate.

There is still no reliable method to prevent the development of a cleft lip and palate. This is in no small part due to the fact that there is not one clear cause: Cleft has a multifactorial origin. One important factor is genetic. Here too, however, the situation is not clear-cut - there is no such thing as "the cleft gene". A group of researchers at the University of Bonn has now added to our knowledge about cleft by investigating the 98% of genes that do not themselves directly contain blueprints for proteins.

On Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022, the Daimler Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, with pianist Marcel Mok and under its longtime musical director Matthias Baur, played a benefit concert for the Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe. The orchestra, a project of music enthusiasts from the Daimler Group, has been in existence since 1978. Former Stuttgart mayor Dr. Wolfgang Schuster gave a welcoming address.

In June 2020, Cristóbal is born with a cleft lip and palate in El Alto, Bolivia. His mother takes care of Cristobal and his two siblings and the household. His father's meager salary as a bricklayer is just enough to survive. At the clinic where Cristóbal was born, his parents received no information about his cleft lip and palate or treatment options, and the couple's family did not support them either. But Cristóbal's story has a happy ending.

The work in our project country Vietnam has been accompanied by the Munich doctors Dr. Denys J. Loeffelbein and Dr. Daniel Lonic since 2016. In December 2022, the two visited their colleagues and friends in Vietnam again for the first time after a pandemic-forced break of three and a half years. Here are some impressions of the work and the people there.

Noor is the Bengali word for "light". When the expectant parents Nipu and Nazmul chose this name for their unborn daughter, they did not yet know that the first months of their child's life would be clouded by a shadow: Noor was born with a bilateral cleft lip. The parents have no money for the necessary treatment and are very worried about their daughter's future. But a ray of hope is not long in coming...

Many people in Sierra Leone are affected by extreme poverty. This also means very poor conditions and little hope for treatment for those who give birth to a child with cleft lip here. Now our long-time volunteer supporters and Africa project leaders, the highly qualified surgeons Dr. Dr. Oliver Blume and Gunther Au-Balbach, visited the country to establish contacts for a new cleft project and to provide care to the first patients.

Our help for children with cleft lip and palate would be impossible without our network of helpers. In addition to many local surgeons and other medical professionals in the partner countries, this network also includes volunteers who support our local teams with passion and skill. An intercultural exchange that is enriching for both sides. The work in our project country Vietnam has been accompanied since 2016 by the Munich doctors Dr. Denys J Loeffelbein and Dr. Daniel Lonic. In December 2022, the two visited their colleagues and friends in Vietnam again for the first time since the pandemic.

To treat children with cleft lip and palate in northern Pakistan, our Cleft Pakistan team drove 1,600 kilometers from Karachi to the city of Dhodial in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 38 patients received surgery for their clefts. For them and their families, this is the start of a new life.

Our new project to help children with cleft lip and palate in Colombia begins with a very unusual case. Maui was born with a cleft lip and palate. His parents belong to an indigenous people and do not know how to get him the help he needs. By a happy coincidence, Julia, a Swiss woman living in Colombia, is a neighbor of the family and offers to help. In search of treatment options, she comes across Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe.

The parents of our cleft children are always full of gratitude. When their child is born with cleft, they often do not know what to make of the malformation, much less that it can be treated. And even if they do - most of our little patients come from the poorest of backgrounds. Their parents could never afford the operation. It is an unimaginable happiness for them to learn that their children can receive qualified treatment, and free of charge even. This wonderful, touching film from our Bolivian aid project captures these special moments of happiness.

This film, made for our Pakistani partner organization, the Al-Mustafa Welfare Societey, by the father of one of our patients, shows scenes from our work in Karachi. From here, our senior surgeon Prof. Ashraf Ganatra treats cleft children from poorest families. He operates the children from Karachi at the Al Mustafa Medical Center. In order to reach the many needy families living outside the city, he also regularly heads out to local provincial hospitals to treat cleft patients there.