Africa’s Largest Cleft Care Facility Welcomes Its First Patient — Meet Miracle

A Family’s Long-Awaited Prayer, Answered

Peter, a pastor in Ghana, carried a quiet emptiness in his heart. His wife, Lucy, sold baby products — diapers, wipes, and essentials for new mothers — while praying she would one day need them for her own child.

Over 11 years, Lucy endured the heartbreak of four miscarriages. When she became pregnant again, she begged God: “Please, don’t let me lose this one.”

Every test and ultrasound showed no problems. Hope finally seemed within reach. But at 36 weeks, Lucy went into labor unexpectedly. She rushed to the delivery room, filled with anticipation of holding her baby girl.

Instead, doctors approached her bedside with solemn faces: “Your daughter has a cleft.”

Lucy wept. “Why, God? After all these years of waiting?”

The baby they named Miracle struggled to breathe and eat. Nurses warned cleft treatment would be expensive and survival uncertain. But Peter’s faith never wavered: “I will sacrifice everything for our baby to live.”

From Struggle to Hope: The Road to Kumasi

Miracle’s breathing difficulties grew worse. One determined doctor urged them to transfer to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, a Smile Train partner.

Peter hesitated to leave his congregation behind, but this doctor kept insisting. Finally, she took it upon herself to call an ambulance to take them there. “God has a purpose, a future for your Miracle,” she said.

That convinced him.

At KATH, Miracle received specialized care — but life remained difficult. She choked while eating, required oxygen, and endured months of setbacks. Meanwhile, her parents faced financial strain. Peter sold his car and worked as a driver for extra money, but never once lost faith.

They could not turn to relatives for help because, after suffering so many miscarriages, Lucy never told her family when she got pregnant with Miracle. Once the baby was born, she decided to maintain her silence until Miracle received her surgery to spare them further pain, even as the hoped-for date slipped further and further away.

Miracle Becomes the First Patient at Africa’s Cleft Leadership Center

After six long months, Miracle was cleared for surgery — just as Smile Train opened the National Cleft Care Center on the KATH campus in Kumasi. This groundbreaking facility is Smile Train’s newest Cleft Leadership Center (CLC) – the first in Africa and the largest cleft care center on the continent.

Cleft Leadership Centers represent one of Smile Train’s most significant investments in building local medical capacity around the world. They serve as regional hubs for cleft treatment, education, training, and research, while providing truly holistic cleft care.

Beyond surgery, Ghana’s National Cleft Care Center also offers cleft-specialized nutrition support, speech therapy, orthodontics, dentistry, and psychosocial counseling, all at no cost to patients. It also trains the next generation of African cleft specialists, ensuring sustainable care across the continent.

Timely surgery is essential for children with clefts, but historically, limited treatment and training capacity in Ghana and neighboring countries has led to long backlogs and delays.

Fortunately for Miracle and children throughout the region, Ghana’s National Cleft Care Center is changing that. This Smile Train Cleft Leadership Center expands local and regional treatment capacity more than fivefold and boosts surgical training opportunities sixfold — ensuring more children receive the care they need, when they need it.

Miracle would be the very first patient to undergo cleft surgery at this historic center.

Witnessing a True Miracle

The night before surgery, Lucy fasted and prayed, terrified of losing the baby she had waited 11 years to hold. When doctors carried Miracle to the operating room, another mother comforted Lucy with conversation until the wait was finally over.

Hours later, Miracle was placed back in her mother’s arms — her cleft healed.

“When Peter saw her, he was so overjoyed that even the neighbors could hear him singing,” Lucy laughed.

Everyone who saw Miracle marveled at the transformation. Even Lucy admits, “Sometimes I look at her and ask, ‘Is this really you?’”

From One Family to a Continent

Miracle’s surgery was more than a personal blessing for Lucy and Peter. It marks the beginning of a new era of cleft care in Ghana and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Smile Train has wiped away my tears,” Lucy says. “To all the donors, may God bless you. Whenever these babies smile, may their smiles reach you wherever you are.”