My name's Ole and I have a son who was born with a cleft lip and palate. Before he was born I decided to set up a blog to chronicle the pregnancy, birth and subsequent life and times of my son, Per, but when he was born with a cleft the focus of the blog changed slightly to incorporate his condition. There was now a section explaining the condition, photos of him (which incidentally came in very handy when the surgeons wanted a look but didn't have immediate access to Per) and eventually a t-shirt section (which turned out to be more popular with the surgeons and doctors than with family... go figure). Further down the line we thought how useful it would have been to be able to connect with other families affected by clefts and so CleftWorld was born.

So what is CleftWorld? Well, what it's not is a resource to educate you about cleft lips and palates, after all, we're not doctors and there are already a tonne of such resources out there (though you can of course ask other CleftWorlders for advice). Rather it's a meeting place and forum where you can connect with other CleftWorlders. If you feel this site is not for you but you'd like to find out more about Cleft Lips and Palates then please feel free to check out our links page.

So here's a breakdown of what CleftWorld has to offer:

The Forum (Conversations)

First and foremost CleftWorld is about the Forum where you can ask questions, post comments and generally interact with the CleftWorld community.
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T-shirts (The CleftWorld Shop)

Buy t-shirts, mugs etc. They're our own designs so we'll be adding to them as time passes. The shop is run by Cafe Press, a very reputable online retailer based in the US. You can view the designs here here.
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Swap Stuff

The marketplace is part of the forum and is aimed at enabling you to sell, buy, lend or borrow toys, clothing, prams, etc etc etc.
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The Blogs

At this stage there's not much to see as I do not have much time to post. However we're looking for regular bloggers so if there's a budding author in you and you feel you can contribute interesting or funny or insightful stories on a reasonably regular basis then please contact me. Don't worry, it's extremely easy and you need no computer experience.

The Links

We've spent a fair bit of time online and have collected a list of cleft-related web links. Feel free to comment or add to the list via
the 'comments' section.
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The Photos

The Photo Gallery is a place where you can upload before and after photos... you know, before the operation and after the operation. It's pretty rough at this stage but we're working on it.
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Cleftoids

The Cleftoids section is where you'll find interesting facts, history and cleft-related trivia. We're hoping that this section will grow more and more interesting as the community adds to it. You can reach the various Cleftoid categories via the 'Cleftoids' menu in the left-hand sidebar.
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You may have noticed that the website isn't quite as flash as some of the sites out there - unfortunately I'm not a programmer and have had to battle my way through on my own but if you have some spare time, an understanding of the Drupal CMS and would like to help out please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

I also feel I need to point out that this site is not a money-spinning machine for us - we have a small markup on the t-shirts and I imagine that there may be some income derived through Amazon referrals - all proceeds are donated to cleft charities. I hope that at some point we can integrate a page which will keep track of the donations.

We are also looking to integrate a tipping system which will allow visitors to tip directly to cleft charities.

Finally, I'd like to dedicate this website to my son Per – a brave little soldier who's got a ways to go yet. He's taught me to get up at 5am and survive, not to be scared of the dentist and that there are things more important than me in the universe.