Regina Otokpa 
Smile Train, an international organisation, has revealed that over 18, 600 persons living with cleft conditions received free surgeries in 2022, through its sustainable partnership model which it said has experienced groundbreaking growth in Africa.
Smile Train’s Vice-President and Regional Director for Africa, Nkeiruka Obi who noted that there was a 13 percent growth over the previous year, noted that the organisation’s transformative impact was possible as a result of strategic collaborations and investments in comprehensive cleft care,
research and innovation saying:
She said: “The positive impact on individuals with clefts we have experienced was borne out of concerted efforts of dedicated medical professionals and counsel of the Africa Medical Advisory Council (AMAC).
The intentional programmatic investments address the needs of the patients while empowering medical professionals to provide the highest standards of surgical and anesthesia care within the local community.
“If we are to truly achieve Universal Health Coverage, our focus must be set on lifting the burden that people living in low-resource settings often face due to inequitable access to the much-needed timely safe surgery and anesthesia care. We can achieve progress in this journey through collaborations with government, corporate partners, and non-governmental organizations and institutions.”
Since 2002, Smile Train has developed local partnerships with more than 700 partner hospitals and over 300 medical partners in 42 countries throughout Africa to provide free cleft treatment.
To date, Smile Train’s local medical partners have provided more than 170,000 life-changing cleft surgeries in the region.
Among the strategic investments in education and training include partnerships with Scottish Charity KidsOR, the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), and the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) to provide scholarships in various categories.
Smile Train has enhanced the surgical workforce in Africa with 25 newly certified cleft specialist surgeons, 40 fellows in training, and 11 anesthesia fellows with the College of Anesthesiologists of East Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA) and Pediatric Anaesthesia Training in Africa (PATA).
In addition, 400 in-house workshops have enhanced the expertise of more than 1,000 cleft care providers including in nursing, surgical instruments maintenance, orthodontists, and speech therapy.
Recently, Smile Train has broken ground in Ghana for Africa’s first Cleft Leadership Centre to build the capacity of cleft professionals to dispense global standards of care at the local level.
