Indiya

As part of our pilot cleft programme with our new covid measures implemented, 10 month old Indiya received treatment for her cleft lip in October 2020.

Indiya's mother Sariya told us she was very worried when Indiya was born, Indiya had a cleft palate as well as a cleft lip which meant she struggled with breast feeding, this made Sariya even more anxious about her baby's health. On top of this Sariya told us how their family had been impacted with financial stress due to the Covid-19 pandemic, her husband worked loading agricultural produce on to trucks to be transported outside their Wordea (town), but road closures due to Covid and security issues meant that this was not possible, resulting in a huge decrease in the families income. 

Sariya travelled to her local health facility with Indiya and the health workers told her that she would be able to receive access to cleft treatment via Project Harar's services - they also suggested feeding techniques and introduced baby formula, so that Indiya would be as healthy as possible by the time she received surgery. 

Indiya received surgery for her cleft lip in early October and will receive surgery for her cleft palate next year. We hope to catch up with them soon. 

Read about the new measures we have put in place for our cleft missions during the Covid-10 pandemic here