Why Ghana's cleft care center is game changer for Africa

When a child is born with a cleft lip or palate, the question too often isn’t how quickly can they get care — but whether they will ever get it. These children and their families face immense challenges. Cleft-affected children struggle with feeding, breathing, speaking, and social isolation. Families confront harmful stigma and, in the most tragic cases, the loss of a child to malnutrition before their first birthday.

It does not have to be this way.

On June 25 in Kumasi, the National Cleft Care Center, Ghana’s first Smile Train Cleft Leadership Center (CLC) and the largest cleft care facility on the continent was inaugurated. Located at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, this new center is much more than a building; it is a testament to the power of partnership and the belief that comprehensive cleft care is a right for every child, everywhere.

Why this matters

Clefts affect an estimated 1 in every 1,200 births in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, more than 700 children are born with clefts each year. Too often, in Ghana and throughout the region, a shortage of surgical capacity, trained personnel, and coordinated services means years of waiting for surgery — if surgery happens at all.

Essential follow-up care, such as speech therapy, nutrition counseling, orthodontics, and psychosocial support is frequently out of reach. The result is inequity, lost potential, and unnecessary suffering.

The new CLC directly addresses these barriers, increasing cleft treatment capacity more than fivefold and growing surgical training capacity sixfold. More children will receive safe and timely surgery, and more health professionals from across Africa will gain the skills to deliver world-class cleft care in their own communities.

Built on partnership

This center is the product of a powerful partnership between Smile Train, the Ghana Ministry of Health, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and the Ghana Cleft Foundation. It builds on more than two decades of collaboration that have already enabled nearly 3,000 cleft surgeries in Ghana.

Ghana’s stability, accessibility, and respected medical institutions position it well to serve the continent. Surgeons, nurses, speech therapists, and nutritionists from across Africa will train here, bringing life-changing expertise back to their home countries.

This is part of a global network of Smile Train Cleft Leadership Centers in Brazil, Chile, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam. These centers not only build local capacity where they are but also strengthen regional health systems by serving as hubs of training and thought leadership for Smile Train’s roughly 1,000 local partner medical clinics and hospitals throughout more than 75 countries.

This model of local empowerment is both scalable and resilient, ultimately ensuring that even in the world’s hardest-to-reach places, medical providers have the expertise and tools to deliver timely, high-quality care for their own communities year-round.

Priorities for the future

While this center represents significant progress, further action is required to ensure comprehensive cleft care is accessible to all who need it. Priority areas include:

• Scaling up surgical and post-surgical services to reduce waiting times.
• Training and retaining a skilled, multidisciplinary cleft workforce.
• Developing national and regional cleft registries to collect data, monitor outcomes, and guide policy.
• Integrating cleft care into national surgical plans to ensure adequate prioritization and long-term sustainability.

We also know that building surgical capacity is not just a health priority — it is an economic imperative.

In 2024, Smile Train partnered on an economic impact study to understand the real-world financial return on Smile Train-sponsored cleft surgeries. It found that since its inception in 1999, Smile Train’s surgical program has boosted economies globally by a staggering $69 billion USD, which translates into more than a 150x return on every dollar invested.

Healthy children grow into healthy, productive adults who strengthen families, communities, and nations.

Moving Forward

Every cleft treated is more than a medical procedure. It is a child eating without struggle. Speaking their first words. Walking into school without fear of bullying or isolation.

The opening of Ghana’s National Cleft Care Center demonstrates what is possible when global vision meets local leadership.

Ghana’s leadership can serve as a model for other countries in the region. By continuing to invest in training, research, and integrated health systems, we can ensure that no child’s health outcomes are determined by geography or resource constraints.

The work ahead will require commitment and collaboration at every level — from policymakers and clinicians to community leaders and international partners. But the reward is measured in millions of lives transformed.

Susannah Schaefer is the President and CEO Smile Train and Prof Peter Donkor is the past President, West African College of Surgeons