Mbuji-Mayi, April 30th, 2025 (CPA) – A free cleft lip and palate repair campaign, organized by the surgery department of the University Clinics of Mbuji-Mayi, the main town in Kasai Oriental, in the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is scheduled for May 1st, 2025, the CPA learns from a medical source on Tuesday.
‘I know that the first deadline has been set. We are organizing this campaign in collaboration with a Canadian non-governmental organization. We had a delay in the arrival of the Canadian team, but a solution has been found and I can confirm that the Canadian surgeons will be on site in Mbuji-Mayi on Wednesday and work will start on Thursday, May 1st, said Dr François Kabumba, a doctor at the Mbuji-Mayi university clinics.
‘The work will be carried out at the Mbuji-Mayi university clinics, the former Dipumba and Bobila Dawa hospitals. Patients with this cleft lip or labio-palate malformation are often stigmatized by the population and their families. They are such misfortunes that they have to adopt antisocial behavior. They prefer to live apart from others, a dangerous situation for the population. This campaign will enable them to live well in society’, he added. This campaign will also enable poor families to have their patients treated free of charge, with the aim of giving them the chance to live like everyone else.
‘As you know, treating these patients is enormously expensive. Most families who have children with this malformation are unable to pay for their own treatment. That’s why the MUC’s Department of Surgery, in collaboration with a Canadian non-governmental organization called Smile Train, have agreed to help these children free of charge,’ he explains. ‘Patients who live outside Mbuji-Mayi will be provided with transport, food and accommodation. The planned programme can last between 7 and 10 days, depending on the number of patients we receive. If we receive a lot of patients, this period could also be revised’, said Dr Kabumba, who did not give the number of patients already registered for this campaign. This free cleft lip and palate repair campaign in Mbuji-Mayi involves surgery to repair the lip, nose and roof of the mouth that have been cleft since birth.