Spreading smiles across Africa

Spreading the highly specialised and life-changing surgical skills needed to bring smiles to the faces of children with facial deformities was the aim of a conference held at a Woodstock hotel last week

General practitioners, plastic surgeons and dentists were among the 150-odd health-care professionals from several African countries who attended the South African Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop on Wednesday October 23 and Thursday October 24.

The conference offered training and networking opportunities. It was organised by the American-based non-profit Global Smile Foundation, which provides free reconstructive surgery to children with cleft lips and palates from poor families and supports its local partner, Operation Smile South Africa, to do the same throughout Africa.

The workshop included lectures, discussions, live surgery observation and hands-on training using simulator devices to practise surgery techniques.

Operation Smile South Africa’s executive director, Sarah Scarth, said the conference was about transferring the skills needed to perform the reconstructive surgeries.

Global Smile Foundation co-founder Dr Usama Hamdan said they had brought the workshop to Africa as there was a great need for training here.

“Our patients that require cleft-lip and palate-repair surgery are not getting the advanced treatment that they need,” he said.

“The conference also looks at providing solutions to challenges faced in different African countries with input from international health-care partners.”

Dr Mmathabo Sekhoto, a dentist of 17 years who works at the oral and maxillofacial surgery department at Wits, described the conference as an “enlightening experience”.

She added: “Cleft-surgery repair can be life-changing, and if we, as doctors, can take our expertise, through help with non-profits, to the broader community, it can be helpful”.

Dr Roseman Siganga, who works in the the plastic and reconstructive surgery department at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, is from Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape and said he understood how hard it could be for families to get reconstructive surgery offered in other parts of the country.

“I would like to take the skills I learned back to help the community at home, and I will also share my knowledge with other trainee health-care professionals.”

Visit operationsmile.org.za or call 021 447 3608 for more information about the organisation.