• The BelaRisu Medical Centre, located at Park Road in Ngara, will provide surgeries to both children and adults, nutritional support, orthodontics and speech therapy.
• It will also train health professionals from other facilities on cleft management.
Image: FILE
A referral clinic that treats cleft lip and palate deformities for free has been opened in Nairobi.
The BelaRisu Medical Centre, located at Park Road in Ngara, will provide surgeries to both children and adults, nutritional support, orthodontics and speech therapy.
It will also train health professionals from other facilities on cleft management.
The clinic was launched by Bela Risu Foundation in conjunction with Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity.
The foundation's CEO Dr Martin Kamau said they will provide cleft surgeries such as cleft lip and palate surgeries, rhinoplasties, alveolar bone grafting, orthognathic surgery, nutritional support, orthodontics and speech therapy.
“We will also strive to empower local healthcare practitioners with the knowledge and skills to be able to provide these surgical services for continuity,” he said.
Cleft lip and palate is among the most common congenital disabilities found among live births.
In Kenya, it is estimated that six children are born with cleft lip and or cleft palate every day.
The resulting facial deformity is devastating not only for the infant but also for the affected family(s).
Further, the visible facial defect not only has a detrimental effect on feeding, development of language and hearing but also on psychological development due to the social stigma attached to it.
Despite its common occurrence, it remains a surgically neglected disease due to healthcare policies prioritising the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes and cancer.
Kamau said they conducted a needs assessment and the data obtained identified the absence of comprehensive cleft care in the sub-Saharan region of Africa.
He said they also noted an increased demand for orthodontics, nutritional support and speech therapy services amongst cleft patients.
“Previously, medical teams had to travel long distances to provide orthodontic, speech therapy and nutritional support services. This made it expensive and logistically difficult to execute, hence the consideration of BMC as part of the solution,” Kamau said.
Smile Train senior programme director East and Southern Africa Jane Ngige-Muturi said their vision is to ensure that patients with cleft are able to receive holistic care closer to their doorsteps.
She said Smile Train’s model of partnering with local medical partners like Bela Risu ensures that patients need not wait too long or go too far to wait for the life-changing surgery.
"Children with cleft may need additional care beyond surgery including nutrition, speech therapy, psychosocial support and orthodontics to enable them to thrive," Ngige-Muturi said.
"We are proud that with the Bela Risu Medical Centre up and running, patients will receive all the comprehensive care they need at no cost.”
BMC has a 30 in-patient bed facility.
It also has two acute care units, two operation rooms, basic laboratory services, a dental unit purposed for cleft treatment, a training center and simulation lab and four consultation rooms.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)