Cleft Palates News Today

During a three-day surgical programme at Rob Ferreira Hospital, Operation Smile South Africa, in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Health and supported by MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet, brought together medical volunteers to treat 27 patients with cleft lips and palates.

Again, that was through world vision, and they had a village of about 1,700 people that got their drinking water, their cooking water, their washing water from this little spring that was where cattle used to go to drink also, so it was semi-polluted. and i adopted the village and we built two school houses, a medical facility, three residences for staff, and we drilled eight wells. tell me about the smile train. when you donate money to charity, quite often you dont know where that money goes o...

Again, that was through world vision, and they had a village of about 1,700 people that got their drinking water, their cooking water, their washing water from this little spring that was where cattle used to go to drink also, so it was semi-polluted. and i adopted the village and we built two school houses, a medical facility, three residences for staff, and we drilled eight wells. tell me about the smile train. when you donate money to charity, quite often you dont know where that money goes o...

A medical facility, three residences for staff, and we drilled eight wells. tell me about the smile train. when you donate money to charity, quite often you dont know where that money goes or what it does. but with the smile train, when youre looking at kids with cleft palates, and theyre like this in the first photo, and after a minor surgery, theyre like this and theyre smiling. and you say, "yeah, i like that. i can see where my money is being spent," so... harvey: and again, youve changed th...

Three residences for staff, and we drilled eight wells. tell me about the smile train. when you donate money to charity, quite often you dont know where that money goes or what it does. but with the smile train, when youre looking at kids with cleft palates, and theyre like this in the first photo, and after a minor surgery, theyre like this and theyre smiling. and you say, "yeah, i like that. i can see where my money is being spent," so... harvey: and again, youve changed their lives. you have ...

A medical facility, three residences for staff, and we drilled eight wells. tell me about the smile train. when you donate money to charity, quite often you dont know where that money goes or what it does. but with the smile train, when youre looking at kids with cleft palates, and theyre like this in the first photo, and after a minor surgery, theyre like this and theyre smiling. and you say, "yeah, i like that. i can see where my money is being spent," so... harvey: and again, youve changed th...

Guilty, even though, it has nothing to do with them. so it has a long impact in the family. so, but at the same time, a simple defect to be corrected, you know, with a little bit of training. any plastic surgeon or surgeon can operate on the patients and correct the deformity. >> reporter: so how does a cleft palate lip happen? between the fourth and the seventh weeks of pregnancy and in development, the tissue joins together to make the face including the lips and the mouth. when it is not full...

>> most of these kids here would be dead. >> reporter: the philadelphia-based christian organization that runs the hospital treats 37,000 patients a year, including 60 children annually with cleft palates. but near the entrance to this hospital dr. umanos was gunned down as he greeted two other americans, a father and son. an afghan security guard opened fire on the group at close range killing them all. dr. umanoss wife, who also volunteered in afghanistan, got the call along with her son at th...