Smile Journey Appeal
Last year we launched our Lives on Hold Appeal which was presented on BBC Radio 4, by the fantastic, sincere and profound William Skidelsky, who is an author and journalist who has written about his experience with other cleft NGO’s in India and his personal experience of having a son who was born with a cleft lip and palate.
Our Lives on Hold appeal helped to raise vital support and awareness for the hundreds of children across Ethiopia whose journeys to reach cleft treatment had been placed on hold due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Together with your help, the families who’s journeys had been paused were able to continue...
This year we are once again calling on the generosity of our community and we want you to know that your support remains as vital as ever. We are so pleased we have been able to continue our cleft work, but the reality of new social distancing measures, combined with the hold up due to the pandemic means that there is more infants and young children than ever who are waiting for their journey for cleft treatment.
Please consider supporting our smile journey appeal, a donation of £150 will significantly change a child’s life prospects, enabling them to eat, speak, smile and grow into adulthood without stigma from others. We are grateful for any amount you any be able to give at this time.
More about our Smile Journey Appeal:
If you are new to our work (welcome!) or just wanted to learn more, we wanted to tell you a little more about us and why Project Harar is a worthy charity to support:
We are experts:
Project Harar’s programme team and extended network of multidisciplinary health workers have been engaging with the most rural communities of Ethiopia for 20 years. Our focus on cleft lip and palate and facial disfigurement means we are specialists in this area and are committed to providing sustainable and comprehensive cleft care in Ethiopia. In an environment that is prone to superstition and health misinformation, our team has built a strong repour with community leaders and regional and local health centres.
We are resilient:
Our strengths in health outreach has allowed us to adapt our work throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic, we were able to continue to provide support for those waiting for cleft treatment and also to safely mobilise patients for treatment as soon as it was safe to do so again. Since the re-launch of our programme in October 2020, over 200 infants and children have gained access to life changing cleft surgery and most recently our work in the Amhara region attracted national recognition in Ethiopia, including a television crew
We make lasting sustainable change:
Our cleft programme is delivered in Ethiopia by an Ethiopian Programme team who are experts in their field. Not only do we provide access to life changing surgery but we continue to provide teaching workshops for health workers about identifying cleft and facial disfigurement, as well as about nutrition, breast feeding and breaking stigma within the community. Receiving access to cleft treatment will significantly improve an infant or child’s life prospects, meaning they can eat, speak, smile and go to school. Please consider supporting Project Harar in our smile journey appeal.
Click here for recent updates about our cleft work