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Samiaji before and after his operations. He was suffering from TB
Since our first operation in 2002, hundreds of children have had successful operations. Year by year the number of children operated on increases as our work becomes better known and more funds are raised. In Sumatra every year about one in every three hundred children is born with this condition so our work is ongoing. This year we already have over 100 children waiting for operations and every week more are found.
Malnutrition & Tuberculosis
Many of the children that we find who need operations have other problems which need sorting before they can have them. Two of the biggest problems we see are malnutrition and TB . Many of the children are babies who for some reason are unable to feed from the mother. Powdered milk is very expensive in Indonesia, so a lot of parents have to feed the children on a water and sugar mix instead which is far less nutritious. If the child is suffering from malnutrition they can't be operated on till they are back to a healthy body weight which. We must make constant trips to the villages supplying milk and having regular check ups with doctors. This is very time consuming and in some cases the child can't be saved.
TB is rife in Indonesia and many children we find are suffering with it. TB takes six months to cure and children that have contracted it can not be operated on till the disease is under control. Curing children with TB is very time consuming and puts our costs up immensely.
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Safiatuddin, pictured above, was operated on in September 2007 but leading up to the operation he nearly died due to malnutrition. We managed to rush him to hospital when we found him in a village south of Banda Aceh. He weighed 3.5 kilos when born and when we found him 3 months later he weighed 2 kg. He was mainly fed on sugar water as the parents could not afford milk.
Surgery and aftercare
We are now working with Harapan Jaya hospital and rehabilitation centre, situated south of Medan close to Lake Toba. As well as the local surgeons, a team of western plastic surgeons visits once a year to help with the most difficult cases.
Although surgery alone achieves remarkable results, many children also require after care such as dentistry. Their teeth can grow crooked and need to be extracted. In many cases false teeth need to be fitted and this can sometimes be more expensive than the initial surgery.
In addition to after care the rehabilitation centre provides speech therapy. If the children with cleft palate have learnt to speak before the operation, as is often the case, they will need speech therapy to teach them how to speak properly once the palate is repaired.
Children needing dentistry or speech therapy will need on going care for several years.
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Ani before dentistry, aged 12, and after aged 19.
Ani was the first child we ever helped.
Education
Often the children have been unwilling to attend school because of the teasing that their appearance provokes. After their operations we have to encourage them to go to school. Educating the children is one of the most important things that can be done to help give them and their community a better future.
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Hiransya before and after her cleft lip operation
To donate now to the Children of Sumatra please click here
To see all our operations completed in 2008, please download this pdf