Blind mom, Dorah Gunduyana, doesn’t need to see baby Kamohelo to know that he’s cute!
Finding out that your newborn has a cleft condition is overwhelming for any parent. But imagine facing that news when you can’t even see your child!
Dorah Gunduyana is blind – and when doctors told her that her baby, little Kamohelo, had a bilateral cleft lip and palate, she struggled to understand what it meant.
Using her fingertips to ‘see’ her child
“Given that I knew absolutely nothing about cleft lip and palate, it was very hard to grasp,” Dorah recalls. “The doctors made me touch his face so I could get an idea of what he actually looked like.”
Back home, feeding Kamohelo proved to be another challenge. He took much longer to feed than a normal baby. “I had to sit for 30 to 34 minutes every time I fed him,” Dorah recalls.
Most babies born with cleft struggle with feeding. So, the sooner the cleft is repaired, the better – to ensure they have adequate nutrition to thrive and meet their developmental milestones.
Partnerships, volunteers and donor support
Thanks to our partnerships with hospitals and communities, our team of medical volunteers, and generous donor support from people like you, Operation Smile was able to provide Kamohelo with free surgery when he was just a few months old. Now aged two, only a faint scar remains to show how far he’s come.
You’ve helped give this little boy the chance to grow and develop just like any other healthy toddler – with a smile that can light up the room.
As for Dorah, her love for her baby has never faltered. “I find him so cute,” she says, her voice lighting up. “He is very bubbly.”
