The impact of cleft on children and their environment

Children with cleft deformity may have hearing, speech, and feeding problems beside facial growth disturbances and last but not least a scarred soul that reflects their facial disfiguration.

In addition to the impact on the child, it is also a tremendous burden on the life of their parents and families. From the very beginning I realized that just operating a part of their deformity wouldn’t ease the pain of their social handicap.

By being confronted with the problems these children and their families face, the idea of the Nadjmi Foundation sprouted.

A humane and efficient way to deal with the suffering of children with cleft deformity

Cleft care is not only about the surgical part but needs a dedicated and passionate team of professionals that not only work together to help the child with his/her facial disfiguration but also give support and teach parents to deal with this unwanted situation.

After a 15-year search to find a humane and efficient way to deal with the suffering that children with cleft deformity have to go through, the Nadjmi Foundation was founded in September 2015.

The ultimate goal of our foundation? To establish centers of excellence where children with cleft deformities can get the best surgical and non-surgical care.

Local hubs of knowledge and expertise: centres of excellence

Together with dedicated local professionals and the financial support of friends of our foundation, it took us 3 years to create the first center of excellence for cleft care in Shiraz (South Iran).

In this center of excellence, all non-surgical cleft care is concentrated in one location (orthodontics, dentists, speech therapists, social workers, skin specialists, and genetics). The surgeries take place in a charity hospital or at the university hospital close to the center.

In the meanwhile the local university students and residents have been involved in several research projects.

The result? A local hub of knowledge and expertise in the treatment of cleft.

Cleft care is not only about the surgical part but needs a dedicated and passionate team of professionals that not only work together to help the child with his/her facial disfiguration but also give support and teach parents to deal with this unwanted situation.

Dr. Nasser Nadjmi

Our core beliefs

The main goal of our charity mission is the creation of incentives and possibilities to involve local professionals to support the cause.

Treatment in centers of excellence

In order to organize a total cleft care, the creation of a team of specialists like orthodontics, dentists, speech therapists, social workers, skin specialists and genetics is necessary beside the surgical team. Free treatment for those who can not afford the costs is mandatory.

Training of local teams

The most important fact in any charity mission is to involve the local people. We focus on training local surgeons and other medical and paramedical professionals who are involved in the cleft care.

Research based treatment

The aim is to link our center of excellence to the local universities for clinical and fundamental research. This is of paramount importance in order to optimize and enhance treatment philosophies.