Smiles Restored: Cleft Surgery Begins at CURE Malawi
Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft lip or palate. Without surgery, many will struggle to eat, speak, smile, and even survive. For a child born in Malawi, access to this essential surgery and critical follow-up care has been scarce—until now.
Beit-CURE Children’s Hospital of Malawi (CURE Malawi) has expanded their plastics program and performed the first-ever cleft lip and palate surgeries at the hospital, providing life-changing care for children who previously had no access to treatment.
Life-Changing Services Where Little Help Is Available
Basic healthcare throughout Malawi, a country of more than 21 million people, is often underresourced or inaccessible.
As the country’s first full-time charitable children’s hospital, CURE Malawi performs more than 2,500 specialized surgeries for children with severe burns and orthopedic conditions. The addition of the cleft lip and palate surgery program offers hope to Malawi’s more than 3,000 children born with these conditions annually.
During the first week of March, CURE Malawi’s Pediatric Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Dorothy Bbaale, was joined by Dr. Andrew Hodges, Lead Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon for CURE International’s hospital network, to perform the hospital’s first cleft surgeries.
“Children with clefts are such a special group,” Dr. Dorothy says. “And I’m very excited that CURE Malawi is now performing these surgeries to give them new smiles. More than that, through providing the regular follow-up care, we can improve their quality of life.”
Lives Forever Changed
The new surgical program will change the lives of children like Wisick, who was born with a cleft lip. His mom, Patricia, recalls the moment the nurse placed her baby boy in her arms. “It took me time to make peace with his condition, to understand that he’s still my son and a precious gift from God . . . I didn’t even know if there was help for him.”
Thankfully, that same nurse referred Patricia and Wisick to CURE Malawi, where he became the first patient to receive surgery to repair his cleft lip. After his successful surgery, Patricia shared, “Knowing my son is the first to receive this treatment fills my heart with so much joy. Just look at him—he looks so handsome! May God bless all the doctors, nurses, and sponsors who made this possible.”
Wisick has been discharged from the hospital to continue healing at home and will return for frequent follow-ups to ensure he makes a full recovery and address any complications with nutrition or speech.
Looking Ahead: Expanding Cleft Care in Malawi
The launch of cleft lip and palate surgeries at CURE Malawi is just the beginning.
“This program is a work in progress . . . it will continue to grow,” Dr. Dorothy notes. “Right now, we have a small cleft team. In addition to me, we have a nutrition team on board, a great nursing team, and a pediatric anesthesiologist. But we have a vision to grow the service and improve the quality of care we can offer.”
Because cleft conditions, even post-surgery, can result in complications like malnutrition, dental problems, ear infections, and hearing and speech disabilities, the hospital will work diligently to strengthen and expand its capacity to provide comprehensive cleft care. This includes recruiting and training specialized medical staff, like speech and language pathologists, and completing construction on a new, expanded surgical center.
This life-changing work is possible only because of generous donors and partners who believe in giving every child the chance to eat, speak, and smile without struggle. We’re grateful!
Here are three things you can do to support the growing mission at CURE Malawi and beyond:
Learn more about cleft lip and cleft palate and the work CURE is doing to help kids living with these treatable conditions.
Become a CURE prayer partner—it’s one of the most powerful ways you can support the children and families we serve.
Make a gift that helps provide a surgery for another child in need.
*Because of our partnership with Smile Train and their contribution to each cleft surgery, your gift is multiplied to bring new smiles to even more kids!
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