Early Intervention Saves Lives
Early Intervention Programmes
What is an Early Intervention Programme?
Every year in Ethiopia, thousands of babies are born with cleft lip and palate conditions. Many are born in remote areas where families have very limited access to healthcare. Without early intervention, affected children often experience malnutrition, social stigma, and a significantly reduced chance of surviving to adulthood.
Project Harar’s Early Intervention programme addresses these challenges by:
❋ Training midwives to identify cleft conditions at birth:
To ensure that babies with cleft conditions are identified as early as possible midwives are trained to identify cleft conditions in newborns. Mothers are supported in feeding babies, both through breastfeeding and using a specialist cleft feeding bottle.
❋ Referring Children for Life-Changing Surgical Treatment:
After an initial visit, midwives will monitor the growth and strength of the child over a period of months and when they are strong enough they will be referred for life-changing surgery.
Many babies with cleft conditions face challenges forming a seal with their lips. Therefore, part of our Early Intervention Programme is providing mothers with fortified formula milk for their babies to prepare them ahead of surgery.
❋ Providing Nutritional Support to affected Babies:
In April 2025, we launched our first Early Identification Pilot, providing training to 55 midwives in the East Hararghe Zone of Oromia, three of them are pictured here. The programme has progressed extremely well, and we are consolidating the work in East Hararghe and an additional training initiative is planned for West Hararghe. A report received from our new Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Ethiopia indicates that the support provided, especially formula milk, specialist cleft feeding bottles, and regular follow-up, has significantly improved the children’s nutritional status and reduced delays in strength gain ahead of cleft correction surgery.
