Eight-year-old Clementine browses through the display of earrings.
The choices are endless. She finally settles on a dangling pair that has
a silver top and a pink stone bottom. As she puts them up to her ear
lobes, she beams up at her father, Frederic. His heart melts, recalling
that just six weeks ago, his daughter had a very different look. He
returns her smile and says, “Every time you see these earrings, you’ll
remember our journey and adventure.”
Seven months earlier, adventure was as remote from Clementine’s mind
as her village is located. It’s not easy living in a village in
Madagascar that is at least a three-day walk from the closest
major village. In school, Clementine had heard about cities bustling
with traffic and markets. She had even studied about vast oceans that
stretch as far as the eye can see. But Clementine had never seen such
things.
Clementine’s family lives a very simple life farming beans, rice and
peanuts. Excitement and adventure are not the only things far from
Clementine’s life; accessible healthcare is also beyond her reach. Born
with a bilateral cleft lip and palate – two splits on her upper lip to
her nose and a hole in the roof of her mouth, Clementine found eating
and speaking very difficult. Local doctors explained to Frederic that
the only thing that could fix Clementine’s lip and palate was a very
costly surgery in a hospital far from their village.
That Clementine survived to her eighth birthday was nothing short of
miraculous. Feeding cleft lip and palate babies is very difficult. Many
suffer from a lack of nutrition and die. Despite her physical
challenges, Clementine survived and did as well as she could in school.
However, her deformity made her an outcast; especially among her peers,
who often made fun of her. The teasing was difficult for Frederic to
hear, but even more painful was the hopelessness.
"As her father I’m sad I can’t protect her from (the teasing),” shared Frederic. “We couldn’t do anything, we live so far away!”
Although the situation was bleak, a group of unlikely visitors from
HeliMission cast hope. Heli Mission is a non-profit organization that
delivers help to remote locations like Clementine’s village. Volunteers
with the organization spotted Clementine and her bilateral cleft lip and
told Frederic a hospital ship in the port city of Toamasina could help.
HeliMission volunteers worked with volunteers aboard the Africa Mercy
to set an appointment for Clementine to see a surgeon. After confirming
the appointment, they sent a radio message letting Clementine know when
they would be transported to the ship. Riding in the helicopter was the
beginning of an experience neither Clementine nor her father will soon
forget.
The short helicopter ride was followed by an eight-hour bus ride from
the capital city. Within 24 hours of arriving in Toamasina,
Clementine’s world opened up in ways she only dreamed. For the first
time she laid eyes on the blue oceans she had so often studied. She also
met many others with cleft lips. She wasn’t alone.
Within two weeks of arriving, Clementine had her free surgery under the direction of Dr. Gary Parker, Africa Mercy’s
chief medical officer. Afterward, Clementine began working with a
speech therapist to learn how to use her newly constructed palate. Years
of speaking with a hole in the roof of her mouth made it a challenge to
use her new palate but Clementine worked as hard at her therapy as she
does in her studies and achieved great results. Slowly she learned that
all the sounds that were difficult for her to make prior to surgery were
a lot easier to make now that her palate was closed.
Finally, the day came for Clementine and Frederic to return home. As
they departed from the market with Clementine’s new earrings, Clementine
hugged her father tightly. His courage and sacrifice in bringing her to
the ship had made her new life possible. She would never forget this
daddy-daughter adventure, the adventure that changed her life.
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