Rural families accessing cleft care gather for a meal at the clinic’s accommodation grounds.
Cleft Care in Madagascar Today
As a remote island nation with a strained healthcare system, Madagascar has largely relied on fly-in surgical missions as the only source of cleft care. This stopgap solution became particularly problematic during the COVID pandemic when international travel came to a halt and children could not even access surgical care, let alone any long-term follow-up.
In 2021, we started a partnership with Clinique Santé Plus with aspirations to solve this problem by collaborating on the nation’s first Comprehensive Cleft Care centre. Santé Plus is working to ensure children have access to permanent, ongoing care locally and advocating for the importance of a comprehensive approach within the communities they operate.
You can hear more about the historical impacts of the surgical mission approach in Madagascar, and how we’re partnering to deliver CCC in Madagascar in this podcast.
Fast Facts
- Population: 29,612,000
- Capital: Antananarivo
- Below Poverty Line: 80%
- Cleft Incidence: 480+/ year
Key Challenges
Newborn Nutrition
Malnutrition is a common occurrence for babies in Madagascar, a problem amplified by frequent natural disasters. A healthy weight must be achieved for safe cleft surgery.
Community Engagement
Awareness of cleft and about the availability of local, comprehensive care is still very limited with many families waiting on missions for treatment.
Transportation Assistance
With only one comprehensive centre in the entire country, families require support to travel long distances and face lost wages.
Program Successes
Children accessed Comprehensive Cleft Care at our partner hospital in 2022
Team members currently support a full Circle of Care for families, a marked increase since launching the project with a single specialist in 2021
Nurses/midwives trained in speech therapy with our support, a specialty with no formal training program currently available in-country
“Traditionally, Malagasy families have had to pay 2 or 3 months' salary just for their child's surgery. Without access to no-cost Comprehensive Cleft Care, treatment is out of the question for them.”
- Dr. Nirina Mandrano, Cleft Surgeon
Stories of Success
In our impact report, we shared that, thanks to our monthly Bright Start donors, we were able to exceptionally arrange surgery for 11 children in the capital city, Yangon. Among those children, a photo of Yoon* and her father, Phyo was featured. Early in 2020, Phyo and his wife Aung learned they would be expecting…
Dan, a bicycle mechanic, and Hellen, a stay-at-home mother, reside on the shores of the swampy Lake Kyoga, along with their two children – Janet and Innocent. In mid-2021, they expanded their family and welcomed a third child, who they would name Esther. It wasn’t until the delivery day that the local health centre discovered…
Vineesh was born in 2012 to a humble family living in the village of Neriya, India near the coastal region of Karnataka. He has two siblings whom he enjoys playing with. Vineesh enthusiastically attends school each day and hopes to grow up to be a teacher. He excels at mathematics, which happens to be his…
Eight-year-old Rachel and her family live atop a lush mountain in rural Costa Rica, about 30 minutes from the nearest town – Cartago. She enjoys taking care of her pet hamster, and playing on her swing outside in the fresh air. She attends a one-roomed schoolhouse, and her favourite subject is Math. Her father operates…
We are often asked how TF came to be. As longtime friends of TF will know, our co-founder and Board Chair, Jackie, has a deep personal connection to our work, as she was born with a cleft lip and palate. We are delighted that Jackie has chosen to share some of her story. Our co-founder…
Samantha is an absolute chatterbox. She is a bubbly and energetic two-year-old, who loves meeting new people. When members of the Transforming Faces’ team visited her family in early April, we noticed this right away. She was keen to share her speech therapy homework that she enjoys doing with her mother, Jimena, and was proudly…
Our Partners in Cleft Care
TF has been supporting partners in Madagascar since 2021.
Our Partnerships in Madgascar
- Clinique Santé Plus, Antsirabe
- Clinique et Maternité Fanantenana, Mahajanga