Give HK Cleft Lip and Palate Families a Smile

Chinese University Students Interviewed HKACLP Members

Twenty odd first-year students from the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, visited our centre to interview members of our association on 23 October 2022.  The interviewees were three patients and their parents.  They shared with the students the problems of cleft lip and palate, the treatment they had received so far and their life stories, so as to increase the students’ understanding of cleft anomalies,that may help them in their future work.  The students come from the Departments of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences.

HKACLP Volunteers Helping Other NGO Flag Selling

The Association encourages its members to care about the disadvantaged in the community and serve people in need in different modes.  In this way, apart from being service takers, they may also become service providers.  The Association organize activities jointly with other non-government-organizations offering help and care to the needy. Due to Coronavirus Pandemic, most of the voluntary services were cut.  Nevertheless, on 27 November, 22 volunteers of the association assisted in the Flag Day - flag selling activities of Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation

Harmonica Class for CLP Children

Children with cleft lip and palate have poor oral muscle activity, which affects their eating and speech.  At the same time, the repair scars affect their upper jaw development, causing underbite problem.  

Playing harmonica is the most suitable oral muscle exercise for children with cleft lip and palate, which can promote their oral muscle control and upper lip activity that can improve their phonation, articulation and eating, and also help their jawbone grow, thereby improving the problem of malocclusion.

With the assistance of the Hong Kong Academy of Harmonica Arts, the Association organized "Harmonica Class for Beginners", hoping to promote children's oral muscle movement and cultivate their interest in music.

Originally the Association would hold "the 30th Anniversary Charity Concert" on 24 January 2022 (Sunday) at the Theatre, Hong Kong City Hall, and the children participated in the harmonica training class might perform in the concert.  However, as there was a surge of Omicron cases since mid-December and the government's preventive measures had much been tightened.  Thus the concert had to be postponed to a later date.

Links:

• HKACLP Website