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By Patrick Githinji
The dazzling smile on Hope Muthoni’s face is infectious. Smiling is all this adorable light-skinned toddler does nowadays, and you would think she is a budding model.
It’s a smile filled with warmth and gratitude. Indeed, the one-year-old toddler is expressing her undying love to the people who helped put a smile on her face after operating on her cleft palate. Hope’s mother, Naomi Ngengi, says it was heart breaking not being able to see her baby breastfeed or smile due to an opening in the upper part of her mouth, which she was born with.
"I thought my little girl was condemned to this fate and that she would forever need special care because of her condition, but now this miracle has happened," expresses Ngengi hugging her daughter tightly.
When her daughter was born at Mpeketoni Sub District Hospital, everything seemed okay. It was not until two weeks after that she realised something was wrong with her daughter.
Hope would vomit every time she fed her, forcing her mother to take her to hospital.
However, the facility did not have the specialised equipment and she was referred to Nairobi.
For the one year, she made countless visits to Nairobi with high expectations that her daughter would be treated, but to no avail.
She would always be asked to return the following month for a further check-up.
"It was a challenge to feed her as she shouldn’t lie flat — only a pillow to help contain the food," says Naomi.
But last July during her usual visits, a doctor at the hospital told her about Operation Smile Mission which was scheduled to be held in Nyeri Provincial General Hospital in October.
And finally, courtesy of Safaricom Foundation, a date was set for Hope’s operation. Today, Hope dazzles everyone with her smiles, thanks to surgery undertaken by doctors from Operation Smile Mission - Kenya.
Hope’s and other children’s surgeries were the last mission this year, after operations in Nairobi and Kisumu.
During the week-long exercise that took place in Nyeri, over 125 patients, including children and adults, received free medical services and Hope was among the beneficiaries.
Besides correcting cleft palates, other conditions rectified were unilateral and bilateral cleft lips, burns and contractures, keloids and growths.
Safaricom Foundation Trustee Josephine Ndambuki said Operation Smile Missions in Kisumu and Nairobi, had treated over 255 patients.
Dr Charles Kabeto, a board member at Operation Smile Mission-Kenya, said the project’s impact on the patients’ lives was great.
"There has been an improvement in health, especially for those with cleft lips and palates who are usually unable to feed properly.
"There’s also an increase in self-esteem as those with cleft lips, burns, and keloid growths, who were previously shunned by society, can now walk around without being subjected to stares and jokes," he said.
True to his words, Hope now has a chance to lead a happy and normal life and perhaps learn to suckle, albeit late.
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