From Gyang Bere, Jos
For a 38-year-old Pastor Mutuwa Namu, growing with cleft lip and palate to adulthood was devastating, humiliating and life-threatening, which isolated him from his peers and most members of his community.
The condition affected his social life as he could not speak and hear properly and only those who were compassionate about his traumatic condition came close to him. To eat was also a difficult task to accomplish.
His birth came with mixed feelings, particularly being the only child delivered alive by his mother but with a cleft. His mother was said to have given birth before but all the children died upon delivery and that compelled her to name him Mutuwa, meaning death.
Sadly for him also, his father died two weeks after his birth, leaving the mother in despondency, taking care of Mutuwa alone. It was believed that the trauma and condition in which Mutuwa came into the world contributed to his father’s abrupt demise.
The mother was left going from one hospital to another and other healing centres seeking a cure for the condition. She did all she could and spent huge sums of money on hospitals treatment and traditional medicine but the condition got worse daily.
He said at a point his mother became too devastated and developed an illness that turned her blind and deaf. A few years after, she couldn’t take proper care of Mutuwa and she passed away, leaving the poor boy to fend for himself at a tender age even in with his pitiable condition.
“It wasn’t funny and how I survived those trying times must have been a big miracle,” he said.
Mutuwa said some of his concerned relatives picked him, but could barely do anything, as nobody was willing to associate with him.
Left to his fate, he grew up with the condition until 1996 when he came across a nurse at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), who took interest in his condition. The nurse’s intervention must have been a turning point for him.
Without wasting time, she took him to stay with her while he went through medical examinations for months before a surgery that was performed by Christian Broadcast Network at JUTH to correct the defect.
Mutuwa, who narrated his experience in Jos, said he did not believe that the condition was going to be corrected.
“I was ashamed of myself. I could not stay where people were, and I asked God at some point, why did He create me this way?
“I could not close my mouth, saliva was dropping from my mouth uncontrollably. Before the surgery, I moved along with a piece of cloth to cover my mouth yet, it was smelling and looking very disgusting.
“That was how my condition was. I could not mingle with my peers, neither did I laugh. It was a hard struggle but, to God be the glory, there is now light at the end of the tunnel as I can laugh now,” he said.
After the surgery, Mutuwa, picked up the pieces and was determined to make a difference. He went to school as an adult and finished his primary and second education, then he proceeded to a theological seminary. He is today a pastor with Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA).
“I had a dream that I died and was with God, but I was complaining to Him, why he made me that way. I promised Him, if he would restore my mouth, I would come back to earth and spread the gospel of salvation.
“Now I am a pastor, married and blessed with three children,” he stated excitedly.
A consultant plastic surgeon at the Department of Surgery, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Dr. Amina Abubakar, said cleft occurs when certain body parts and structures do not fuse together properly during fetal development.
Abubakar, a partner of Smile Train with 14 years’ experience in cleft surgery, during a workshop with journalists, organised by Smile Train on the topic “Media as a veritable tool for demystification of cleft,” said she has operated on over 300 cases of cleft.
She stated that there was no definite cause of cleft, but genetics has been proved to be responsible, to some extent.
She explained that cleft could involve the lip or the roof of the mouth, which is made up of both hard and soft palate, and one in 700 babies are born with a cleft globally.
Public relations and communications manager of Smile Train, Africa, Emily Manjeru, explained that most children with a cleft will never eat, speak or breath properly neither can they make friends or have the opportunity to go to school or hold a job.
She explained that Smile Train’s vision was to see a world where every person has access to high-quality, comprehensive cleft care and the ability to live a full and healthy life.
She noted that the organisation empowers local medical professionals by training , funding and other resources to provide free cleft surgery and essential care to children globally.
Manjeru said: “We advance a sustainable solution and scalable global health model for cleft treatment, drastically improving children’s lives, including their ability to eat, breathe, speak and ultimately thrive.”
She said thousands of children in poor communities around the world don’t have access to the lifesaving cleft treatment they desperately need.
She explained further: “A baby with a cleft is born every three minutes and without cleft treatment, these babies can experience isolation and often face prejudice in their communities. No child deserves to feel like an outcast.
“The organization has facilitated free treatment for over 30,000 cleft babies in Nigeria and they are still on the search of babies with the condition for free treatment.”