cleft lip and palate surgery
Indonesia: The Mouths of Babes
CBN.com – INDONESIA - When 13-year-old Susi looks in the mirror, she sees her cleft lip and wonders why.
“I am embarrassed because at school, my friends often teased me and ask me why my lip was torn,” Susi says. “I tell them, ‘I don’t know why I was born like this.'”
Susi thinks about her younger brother Sama, who has a cleft lip too.
“When I was little, I didn’t think that my lip was different,” Sama says. “But, then when I was about 10, I realized my lip was broken.”
Susi and Sama have grown up on a remote island in Indonesia. Their father gathers and dries cocoa beans to sell in the market. But the money from that small business was not enough to pay for even one surgery. And if they collected enough for one surgery, how would they decide which child should have it?
The family saw a glimpse of hope when Sama and Susi came home from school one day with news from one of their teachers.
A medical team from CBN's Operation Blessing was coming to their island with the offer of free cleft palate surgeries.
“I have always dreamed of having an operation,” Susi says.
“I was really hoping that I could have an operation too,” Sama says.
Within a short time, Sama and Susi were side by side in the operating room receiving their free cleft lip surgeries thanks to CBN partners.
A couple of months later, we went back to their island to see them.
“I am so happy too…you have fixed my lip and given me hope,” Susi says. “Thank you for helping me and my brother!”
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