Back to School with Confidence: How Cleft Care Helped Peter Thrive in the Classroom

In Thika, Kenya, Joseph and his wife, Esther, welcomed their first child, Peter, at a hospital during a rainstorm that knocked out the power. In the darkness, the family could not see him clearly. When the lights finally came back on, they discovered that their son had a cleft lip and palate. With no family history of the condition, Joseph describes feeling shocked and overwhelmed, uncertain about what the diagnosis meant for his son’s future.

“We come from a very humble background,” Joseph says. “We couldn’t afford the money of the surgery, and we didn’t have those insurance policies.” Alongside financial challenges, the family also faced weight of stigma and misinformation in their community. “You know, in Africa, there’s this thing we call juju,” Joseph explains. “So, when you have a child like that, they start talking about it.” Over time, the pressure of those misconceptions weighted heavily on Joseph and Esther as they searched for searched for answers.

Finding a Path to Surgery

As Peter grew, the family learned that surgery was possible. Joseph’s uncle saw a post on Facebook about an upcoming Operation Smile Kenya surgical program at Thika General Hospital and shared it with him. After connecting with our team by phone, Joseph brought Peter to the program, traveling an hour by cab to reach the care they had not known was within reach.

At the surgical program, Peter received the cleft surgery he needed. In May 2021, the care team treated his cleft lip, and about five months later, in November of the same year, he returned to the same hospital for his palate surgery. Through it all, the team guided Joseph and his family through each step of the process, helping them understand what to expect before, during and after surgery. Still, the waiting was difficult. “When he went for the surgery, that anxiety… you don’t know your kid, how he’ll come,” Joseph recalls.

The moment Peter came out of surgery stayed with Joseph. “When he came, he came so different,” he shared. “I just wept because my kid is now looking like the other kids.”

The change resonated beyond the just Peter’s immediate family; it moved a whole community. One neighbor walked 6 miles just to see Peter, hardly able to believe the transformation was possible. Friends and other community members came together to embrace him, celebrating his recovery and new smile.

A Child Growing in Confidence

Now, Peter is in second grade and preparing for third. By his father’s account, he is keeping pace with his peers in every way that matters. “I’m very proud about it,” Joseph says. “And the teachers are saying he’s very bright in school. Even when we are doing homework, he’s very bright.”

Beyond academics, Peter is a lively boy who loves soccer and dancing. In the weeks after surgery, Joseph watched his son grow in confidence, engage more with the world around him and move through his days with an ease that hadn’t been there before. The weight of stigma, something Joseph had felt pressing on his family since Peter’s birth, began to lift.

Following surgery, Peter has continued to receive comprehensive follow-up care, including speech therapy referrals at Kenyatta National Hospital, as part of his ongoing recovery and development. His speech is still developing, and Joseph credits much of his progress to ongoing care and the increased time Peter spends playing and interacting with other children.

“What I can say about the operation is that it gave him a lift from that kid being stigmatized by the society,” Joseph says.

What Joseph Wants Other Families to Know

For Joseph, his son’s journey is about more than one child’s outcome. It is also about challenging the misinformation that often surrounds cleft conditions and the barriers and harmful misconceptions that prevent families from seeking care.

“If I meet a parent who has a child who has a cleft, I just tell him your kid is not having … not witchcraft, not juju, not what people say,” he says. “Don’t listen to those stigmatizations. Your kid is normal like the other kids. If you have an opportunity for that surgery, go for it.”

Access to safe, high-quality surgical care changes what children are able to do and who they are able to become. From a moment of uncertainty in Thika to a classroom where Peter is now recognized as one of the brightest students, his journey shows the lasting impact of care that reaches families when they need it most.