A cleft palate begins before birth, when the tissue that forms the roof of a baby’s mouth does not join completely. What remains is an opening between the mouth and nose. What follows can reach into some of the most basic parts of childhood.
Depending on the cleft, a baby may struggle to eat. As a child grows, speech and language can suffer. Ear infections, hearing loss and dental problems occur more frequently. Surgery closes the opening, while some children need additional care as they grow. With treatment, most children with cleft lip or palate do well and lead healthy lives.
But medicine tells only part of the story.
Héctor Ramírez, president of the Rotary Club of Historic Jackson Heights, spoke about another burden during a recent visit to Rocky Point Rotary with William Poveda, his club’s vice president. In some parts of the world, a child born with a cleft may face rejection because of the condition. Ramírez spoke of children who did not survive.
What Ramírez described has happened in countries around the world. Children born with cleft conditions have faced abandonment, rejection and, in documented cases, death because of the condition and the circumstances surrounding it.
The social consequences reach Colombia, too. Children with cleft conditions there have described mockery over their appearance and speech, exclusion from play, loneliness and shame about speaking with other children. A medical condition can become a social burden long before a child is old enough to understand why other people react differently.
The Rotary Club of Historic Jackson Heights works with Rotary clubs in Colombia and a foundation there that organizes the surgeries. Rocky Point Rotary had already funded surgery for five children scheduled for September 26th.
Ramírez brought a list of eight.
During the presentation, members asked about the other three children. Their surgeries had not yet received funding.
The response came spontaneously. Club members voted on the spot to fund the remaining three surgeries, extending the same opportunity for treatment to every child on the list.
The significance of that moment will not appear on a check or a Rotary meeting agenda. It will unfold in the lives of eight children after they enter the operating room.
Surgery cannot promise any child an easy childhood. It cannot guarantee acceptance or erase every medical problem associated with a cleft palate. But it can repair the opening a child was born with and address problems that can affect eating, speech, hearing and development.
Now eight children in Colombia will have that opportunity. And eight families will watch their children enter surgery with the possibility that life after September 26th will be different from life before it.