The kick-off meeting for a ground breaking new Erasmus+ project has just taken place at the project coordinator’s head office (European Cleft Organisation) in Rijswijk on Wednesday 20 November 2019.  17 participants attended from 9 partner countries including the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Serbia, Norway, Romania, Estonia, Ireland, Italy and Malta.  The thee-year project will, for the first time, bring together specialists in speech therapy and psychology to develop an education programme to be delivered by health professionals to parents of children born with clefts.  The course will enable parents to identify signs of impairment and offer practical ways of supporting their child who may be experiencing speech and language difficulties and/or psychological challenges associated with their condition. Speech, appearance and psychological adjustment are inextricably linked.

The team were pleased to welcome Danielle Eerenberg of Erasmus+ Netherlands to the meeting which focused on overall objectives, team planning, administrative procedures and monitoring.  ECO Executive Director, Gareth Davies, said “I am delighted with the enthusiasm we had around the table from international experts in the field.  The partnership is really strong and everyone knows that the real beneficiaries of this project will be the families of children born with clefts” The next meeting will be hosted by the Irish partner in Dublin in May 2020. PARTNERS ARE:

• European Cleft Organisation, The Netherlands
• Associatcia Licevi Anomalii, Bulgaria
• Triskelion, Norway
• Spitalul Clinic De Urgenta Pentru Copii “M. S. Curie”, Romania
• Smile House – Fondazione Operation Smile Italia Onlus
• L-Universita ta’Malta UM
• University of Niš, Serbia
• University of Tartu (UT), Estonia
• Speech at Home, Ireland