Cleft Kids New Zealand website to be retired

Cleft Kids New Zealand was originally founded by Kenny Ardouin in September 2005 when Kenny himself was a teenager as a means of providing support for young people growing up in New Zealand affected by cleft lip and palate.

This involved online and web-based support as well as working with the then Cleft Lip and Palate Auckland Support Group to provide services.

In 2010 an agreement between the two organisations was reached to form the new Cleft New Zealand on the condition that Cleft New Zealand develop a youth programme with Kenny overseeing this process. In late 2013, almost four years into the programme, the programme managed to deliver Kenny’s dream of hosting its very first youth camp. The programme continues to grow, and improving youth services has been a huge passion of Kenny’s and has been reflected across Cleft New Zealand since his employment as the general manager in late 2012.

Therefore, with the youth programme continuing to grow from strength to strength under the Cleft New Zealand brand, it has become time to permanently retire the last asset of the Cleft Kids New Zealand brand – its website. At its time of development, the website was one of the leading websites around the world on cleft lip and palate and has been greeted with tens of thousands of views over the years. However, with the amalgamation of the two organisations, it has not been updated since 2010.

As we know, there have been many developments in the field of cleft care and research since 2010 and therefore it seems both unwise to maintain an outdated website, and unwise to update the site given Cleft New Zealand’s leading edge and up-to-date website at www.cleft.org.nz. We also want to eliminate any potential confusion between the two sites.

Therefore, the Cleft Kids New Zealand website will go offline permanently at the end of the year. Until 5 January 2015, the site can be accessed as normal at cleftkidslegacy.kennyardouin.com.

Thank you to all those who have supported Cleft Kids New Zealand since its launch in 2005.