One of the great delights of being part of the NCF team is the joy of seeing children operated on in previous years return to clinic; often this is because they have had corrective cleft lip surgery and are...

Five month old, Runali, was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. Dad said, “I give the team number one status for the work done here. Nothing can be improved on. We felt reassured because everyone went about...

It was lovely to catch up with Rehan whose cleft lip was corrected in 2015. Now three years old, he returned to have his cleft palate repaired this year and for advice on his speech.

Ishant had a lateral cleft, which meant, unusually, the cleft affected the side of her mouth and cheek, rather than the lip or palate. She never stopped smiling though.

We last saw Pappu in 2016 - at that time his story was one of isolation and stigmatisation because of his inability to communicate with his peers and even his teachers. What a difference a year makes!

“I feel very sad” Pappu says, his eyes full of tears. The unfairness is that because of poverty, Pappu’s palate wasn’t repaired much earlier, ideally before he had begun to talk.

Last year we met Lucky – one of twins, who had his cleft lip repaired by the team in January 2015. He was much smaller than his brother then, but now he has caught up and is a real...

When Lomesh was born with a cleft lip and palate it was accepted as fate. The family could not afford to seek medical help, so were grateful to hear about the outreach.