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Patient Story Malawi

His Dream is Within Reach

Patient Story Malawi

His Dream is Within Reach

Cosmas, 21 years old. Photo: Margherita Mirabella.

Our promise of improving health and dignity during the COVID-19 pandemic endures. We're helping front-line health workers stay safe, nourished and empowered to better serve their patients by providing life-saving supplies and equipment, as well as remote training to bolster their response. We’re also providing nutritional assistance, hygiene kits and virtual health services to support people and their health needs so they can thrive. If you can, when you can, help us keep our promise to care for children and create hope for tomorrow.

If any of Cosmas’ 12 brothers and sisters were in need of medical care growing up, the closest health clinic to their home was a 30-minutue walk. As for the closest hospital, that was a three-hour walk. 

Not once during any of his regular check-ups to the clinic was Cosmas told that his cleft condition could be repaired with surgery.

Cosmas grew to accept that his cleft as God’s will but was still unhappy. He believed that he’d live with the burden of an unrepaired cleft lip forever. For 21 years, he did. 

But on a day that Cosmas expected to be like any other, a friend in his community told him that he wouldn’t have to live the rest of his life with his cleft condition because Operation Smile Malawi had an upcoming medical mission. 

Unfortunately, he learned about the upcoming mission too late. Even if he and his dad had the money to pay for travel, they never would’ve reached the mission site in time. But both men refused to give up. 

Ganizan, Cosmas’ father, was a 70-year-old subsistence farmer. Cosmas earned a small salary as a farmer, but he also learned that neither he nor his father could pay for surgery through the local hospital.  

Cosmas was hopeful that he would receive another opportunity to get safe surgery for free through Operation Smile Malawi.

When Cosmas was 21 years old, Ganizan was determined to find a way to get his son the surgery that he knew would change his life. Walking the three hours it took to reach the district hospital in Dedza, Ganizan sought out more information about the process of getting his son to the next Operation Smile Malawi mission. 

He was told to arrive back at the district hospital in August where a bus provided by Operation Smile Malawi would be waiting to take them to Lilongwe at no cost.

After much waiting, the day finally arrived, and Cosmas and his father left their community to begin the long 7-hour trip to the mission site. 

After passing his comprehensive health evaluation, Cosmas and his father learn that he's been placed on the surgical schedule during a 2015 Operation Smile Malawi medical mission in Lilongwe. Photo: Margherita Mirabella.

Following their journey, they arrived in Lilongwe, and Cosmas felt at peace seeing others like him. For the first time, he knew that he wasn’t the only one living with a cleft condition.

As many as nine in 10 people around the world can’t access basic, surgical care and can endure years of bullying, social isolation and severe health problems from an untreated cleft condition. For Cosmas, a lack of education and awareness about cleft conditions in his community proved to be a barrier that lasted two decades.

Although he was often teased, all Cosmas wanted growing up was to be treated like everyone else. He had friends and loved to watch soccer and his favorite player, Malawi’s own Fisher Kondowe. 

On the verge of undergoing a surgery that he waited on for more than two decades, Cosmas was looking forward to enjoying the activities of his peers without being burdened by his cleft condition.

His experience at the Operation Smile medical mission was much different than life in his community. There was no worry about being harassed or teased. For once in his life, he was around people who accepted him. 

“When I go home people will stop making fun of me,” Cosmas said.

He walked into the operating room with confidence, knowing that he’d come out with a completely new smile – he couldn’t wait for the opportunities his future would hold.

Cosmas, one year after his surgery. Photo: Margherita Mirabella.

Ganizan didn’t stop smiling when he saw his son for the first time after surgery. 

He had spent 20 years watching his son struggle to come to terms with his cleft condition and now his life is renewed. Both Cosmas and his father gave a big thumbs up when asked if they were satisfied with the surgery. 

When he saw his reflection for the first time, he could not believe the change he saw in the mirror. 

Since returning home, Cosmas feels like he is now free.  

Although he always had friends, he didn’t like to go out in public with them for fear of being teased. Now, he feels excited  to go out with friends because nobody stares at him or calls him names.

Interacting with others is something that Cosmas now embraces. He is currently in his first year of high school, and his favorite subject is social studies with dreams of becoming a police officer.

“I am very happy and thankful to Operation Smile, and I hope they will keep helping others,” Cosmas said.

Help us to continue keeping our promise to patients like Cosmas amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Your support today means we can help patients through these uncertain times and provide them with the care and surgery they deserve when it's safe to resume our work.

Photo: Margherita Mirabella.

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