ARCHIVES: Atteridgeville's Seitebogo Peta is the 29-year-old founder of the Seitebogo Peta Cleft Palate Foundation.
“I was born with a cleft palate myself and over the years I decided to volunteer with various organisations that deal with cleft [palates] and craniofacial defects,” says Seitebogo Peta.
She says she aims to build children’s confidence, as often their parents do not know how to handle their cleft palate and the children are unsure of how to navigate the world, particularly when being bullied because they look different from other children. Peta explains that the defect usually happens between the first six and nine weeks of the pregnancy and can be as a result of genetics, or external environmental factors like the types of medication an expectant mother may be taking during pregnancy. Research has found that not getting enough folic acid during pregnancy may also be a cause.
She says that even today people will ask her, “Were you in a car accident?” when they see the scarring on her upper lip from her surgery. However, her parents instilled confidence in her because they were empowered with knowledge. It was only in her later years at university, when she was exposed to the opposite sex, that she became self-conscious.
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