A team of 17 medical workers from the US, Canada and Australia arrive Nigeria on January 8 to perform free surgeries to correct cleft lip and palate in 100 children.

Nigerian doctors will join in the 12-day surgeries at General Hospital, Ilorin from January 10 to 22, supported by the Mike Omotosho Foundation and the US-based Alliance for Smiles, and facilitated by twin Rotary International districts in Nigeria and the US and Kwara state government.

"There is an urgent need to invest in children with birth defects and reduce neonatal and under 5 mortality," said Omotosho, governor of Rotary's District 9125, in Abuja.

Orofacial cleft (OFC) results when face and lips do not form properly in babies during pregnancy, and are considered the most common malformations not the head and neck in babies.

Rotary has called for a registry to track birth defects, including clefts, across the country.

"The opportunity to provide free surgical care for OFC opens a new vista for public awareness, prevention and research," said Omotosho.

"Surgery is an important and life-saving but largely unreachable component of the services required to treat children with Orofacial Clefts."