TY Danjuma Foundation invests $40m in grassroots healthcare, education

Succour has come the way of about 50 Nigerians living with various facial deformities, as the Cleft and Facial Deformity Foundation, in collaboration with TY Danjuma Foundation, has provided free medical surgeries to enable them to live normal lives. 

During the opening ceremony of ‘Team 27’ free cleft and facial deformity surgery at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, Executive Director, Cleft and Facial Deformity Foundation, Dr. Seidu Bello, called for establishment of School of Dentistry at UATH to produce special surgeons for effective craniofacial disease management.

He added that the free surgery initiative witnessed massive turnout of patients with facial deformities from different states, with over 44 patients registered so far, 13 patients operated on, while surgery continues for one week with a target of 50 patients.

Bello noted that facial deformities come with not just body pain, but psychological disturbance caused by social stigmatisation; hence, the need for special attention.

According to him, it is unacceptable that some Nigerians still go about with glaring psychological disturbance of facial deformities in the society, while the rest look elsewhere.  

He said: “Effective management of facial diseases requires continuous production of maxillofacial surgeons, which is a specialty of dentistry, and which are in short supply nationwide, with less than 200 specialists in Nigeria.

“There is need for deliberate effort to increase the workforce by producing more dentists and maxillofacial surgeons across the country, especially in the face of massive exodus of doctors. There are just about 10 schools of dentistry across Nigeria producing less than 250 dentists yearly.”

Bello said the foundation was conceived about 11 years ago to serve as a platform to proffer a Nigerian solution to Nigerian problem of facial deformity by creating awareness and assisting the less-privileged with free surgery. 

He said: “Our journey in the past 11 years has been challenging and fulfilling. We have traversed various hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Niger, Kogi, Taraba, Edo, Katsina, Oyo, Nassarawa and Delta states. We have succeeded in creating awareness about the scourge of facial deformities in various communities.

“Interestingly, most of our cleft patients now are babies, bringing us at par with the rest of the world, where cleft surgery is essentially for children.”

Executive Director, TY Danjuma Foundation, Mr. Gima Forje, said the foundation invested over $40 million in quality and affordable healthcare, as well as education for the grassroots since inception, adding that “it supports free medical outreaches in Nigeria, so that people in poor communities can have access to quality healthcare.” 

For Chief Medical Director of UATH, Prof. Bissallah Ekele, “happiness has been restored to the lives of those who have been made unhappy due to facial deformity.”