From Scars to Smiles: Reconstructive Surgery for the World's Poorest

By Daniel and Melanie Hamon

While playing in a field near his village in Zimbabwe, 10-year old Beloved Jefeti picked up what he thought was a radio and held it up near his face to get a better look. The radio turned out to be a land mine which exploded, destroying most of his lower face. Miraculously, Beloved survived, but was left with devastating facial deformities. For most children left scarred by land mines, and also children born with cleft palate and other severe birth defects, this would be the end of the story.

However, five years later, enter Jennifer Trubenbach, Executive Director of Operation of Hope, who after meeting Beloved, made it her personal mission to bring him to the United States for reconstructive surgery and borrowed $180,000 against her house to make it happen.

Operation of Hope is a volunteer medical organization whose members travel to underdeveloped countries to perform cleft lip, palate, and facial reconstructive surgeries free of charge to their patients. Since its founding in 1988, Operation of Hope has provided an amazing gift to over 1,900 children in need. In Beloved's case, the complexity of the surgery required that he come to the U.S. for treatment.

One can only look at the before and after surgery photos of Beloved to appreciate this enormous gift.

Beloved's story and his stay in California is reported in the Orange County Register. While staying with the Trubenbachs and recovering from surgery, Beloved visited Heritage Christian School in Mission Viejo last December:

Every child from kindergarten through eighth grade lined up to shake his hand, look him in the eye and welcome him. Overcome with emotion, he fainted.

In May, Trubenbach brought him back to Lake Forest for a month-long visit. Then as he readied to leave again, the parents of a girl who is now in seventh grade at Heritage Christian, invited Beloved to move in to their Lake Forest home for this school year.

"We always wanted to go on a mission," says Sandi Lippe, a business systems analyst. "Maybe our mission came to us."

And what will be Beloved's memory of his visit to the United States?

If you ask Beloved what he likes about America, he doesn't talk about the TVs or the iPods or the computer games or the McDonalds. He just says: The kids. "The best that has happened to me is coming to America...I'm happy."

Comments

[Dana Borowka]

Hi Dan - Thank you so much for sharing! It's horrible what people do to one another yet the gift that was shared truly shows what people can do for one another :)

[upper eyelid]

I agree, is really hard to watch how people can do so horrible things to another human, specially in poor countries. Hope more people began to make the difference in this world. Thanks for sharing.