Smile Foundation spreads happiness

CHRISTELLE Kirsten is a mother who has discovered the power of having a baby who can smile.

A year ago the Smile Foundation, in two separate surgeries, fixed her baby Justelle’s cleft lip and palate.

“When Justelle was born I was shocked,” she said this week. “It is not something you will admit because I think many moms, like me, go into survival mode.”

Then a friend contacted the Smile Foundation and sent them a picture of Justelle.

“We then came to Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital to see Dr Chris van der Walt [head of plastic surgery at Provincial Hospital]. He did Justelle’s first surgery when she was four months old. That was in May. In August last year she had another operation to fix her cleft palate.

“It is very tough on the parents,” Christelle said. “I remember with her first operation I found my husband, Justin, in the passage crying,” she said. Since her surgery her little girl is doing very well. “I am also training to becoming a support mom for Smile Foundation,” Christelle said. “I am very proud to say I will be able to encourage and support another mom.”

During Smile Week there are workshops for moms who had babies with cleft lips and palates and organisations like Cleft Friends also support mothers.

“The biggest gift Smile Foundation could give me was to show me I am not alone,” Christelle said.

The coordinator for the Smile Foundation in Port Elizabeth, Tanya Jackson, said 26 children received surgery for facial anomalies including cleft lip and palate surgery, the removal of extra fingers and nose surgery.

-Estelle Ellis