Improving speech for Mexican children born with cleft lips and palates

An estimated nine children are born with cleft lips and palates in Mexico each day — roughly 3,500 every year. Despite the life-threatening risks it poses to a child and their development, nutrition, and speech, some 1,500 of these children don’t receive any care whatsoever.

13-year-old Cristian Castro Zenteno was born with a cleft lip and palate in a remote village in the south of Mexico. While he's already undergone two surgeries, he's still unable to speak clearly like other boys his age. The treatment he received from a short-term medical mission didn’t provide the comprehensive care he needed — including speech therapy — to ensure a good result.

Living in Chiapas, a southern Mexican state bordering Guatemala, Cristian and his family travel the 100 km separating his village Luis Espinoza from the regional capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez to visit the foundation La Fuerza De Mi Sonrisa, or “The Strength Of My Smile.” The trip from the village takes around three hours each way and the family often has to walk for 40 minutes to reach the nearest town with public transport.

But it’s worth it, according to his father ​​Cilas Castro Lopez: “The service at the foundation is much better and more focused on the children. It’s not just about the surgery but they also do [speech] therapy with them. Cristian’s results would have been much better if we had initiated treatment there,” he said.

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