Facts about Cleft

A Cleft is a split or a gap in a structure. A split upper lip is called a Cleft Lip, while the term Cleft Palate is used when the gap involves the palate (= the roof of the mouth).

FOTO CLEFT LIP CHILD & FOTO CLEFT PALATE CHILD

• Cleft is the most common birth defect in the world
• Cleft is most common among Asians
• The rigth time for lip surgery is the age of 3 months. But there are still a lot of late handling cases of cleft children, teenagers or even adults.

Free surgery is not enough

Different criteria have to be fullifiled otherwise the child will not be operated at all.

The parents of a cleft child need to know the rigth time to bring their child for the surgery.

One of the most important criteria: the child needs to have a certain weight and be well nourished. However, feeding a child with a cleft lip or palate can be extremely difficult. And without proper feeding the baby will be dehydrated and not ready for surgery. That is why "Cleft Care Indonesia" is working hard to give feeding assistance to the parents. We provide guidance and special feeding supplies and nutrition packages for underweight and underprivileged children.

Meet the families of cleft children and giving them information is one thing, another one is take the time to educate them about this problem so they can understand it and spread the word around them. That is what we are doing, as well as we inform and educate the public about cleft by giving informative posters and brochures, doing presentations and publishing articles.

In East Java alone, more than 1000 infants are born every year with a cleft.
This infants mainly come from underpriviledged and uneducated families living in remote and rural areas. Getting to the hospital on time - or at all - is usually a big challenge for them. That is why Cleft Care Indonesia offers transportation support to help these families to get treatment or/and surgery.

A baby with a cleft shocks parents who have never seen it or heard of it. These parents may reject their child by hiding him or even abandon him to others ’ care. We want to avoid that, especially as a cleft can be operated, by offering emotional support to the families.

Together we can help cleft infants and their parents to have a better life

Through our direct interactions with different communities, the Tulip Foundation and Cleft Care Indonesia have already done a lot. Still our call for help grows larger and more intense every day as we become involved in the help of more and more cleft children and giving up is totally out of the question!

Cleft Care Indonesia informs, assists and supports parents with cleft infants, bringing hope into these families. Children suffering from having a cleft deserve a normal life and we call for your helping hands to enable this to happen.