For young Iowane from Fiji, the social effect of being born with a cleft lip was huge. The four-year-old always stayed close to his mother’s skirt when they were away from home as she tried to protect him from the teasing and taunts of others.
Without treatment, the condition would have continued to impact on his relationships in his community, along with complications for eating and growing healthily.
Iowane is a tall boy for his age and painfully shy. His mother Saumia said she felt ashamed of his deformity, a common response from parents in the countries in which we work.
Saumia said surgery for Iowane was her dream and that she had promised she would find someone to fix his lip because she didn’t want other children to look at him in that way.
