This project will contribute to our Early Intervention Programme to provide training for midwives to identify newborns with cleft conditions at the earliest moment. Without early identification and intervention, newborns with cleft conditions are vulnerable to malnutrition and are too unwell to receive surgery. Project Harar provides fortified milk powder and guidance to mothers to combat this. With the right support, newborns can receive timely access to cleft correction surgery.
One child in every 700 worldwide is born with a cleft condition. In the West, these babies receive timely surgical interventions shortly after birth. However, in Ethiopia, the situation is vastly different. Many of these babies born with a cleft go unidentified and live in remote, rural communities with limited access to treatment. Where treatment is inaccessible, babies are often subject to malnutrition and cannot receive the life-saving surgery they need. Project Harar works to change this.
Our Early Intervention Programme includes a five-day comprehensive workshop to train midwives in identifying cleft conditions in newborns. Once training is complete, midwives are equipped to provide mothers with feeding advice as well as supplementary formula milk and specialist feeding bottles for their newborns. With this support, babies have a reduced likelihood of malnutrition and in turn, can receive life-saving surgery for their cleft condition.
In the long term, this programme will reduce the incidence of untreated cleft conditions in Ethiopia. Midwives are trained to support families affected by cleft conditions, therefore reducing the stigma surrounding communities. Newly trained midwives also ensure that newborns are identified and referred for cleft correction surgery as early as possible.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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