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.
When he returned home, Justin was met with kindness and acceptance from members of his community for the first time in his life.
This was a sharp contrast to how many people in his village treated him before he received surgery from Operation Smile Madagascar to repair his cleft lip.
At 53 years old, Justin had spent his life feeling abandoned and alone because of his appearance.
His only son didn’t want to be seen with his father, and his wife left him due the stigma associated with his unrepaired cleft lip.
The years of being called names like “sima,” a derogatory term meaning cleft lip, had caused Justin to become shy.
Then one day, Justin saw a poster for Operation Smile Madagascar in his village hall with pictures of patients before and after surgery.
That was the first time Justin had seen another person who looked like him, and the first time he saw someone whose cleft lip had been repaired.
While the thought of having his smile repaired was exciting, Justin also knew he would have to take a chance and travel somewhere far from his home.
But after speaking with a local health worker, Justin mustered up the courage to attend an upcoming Operation Smile medical mission.
He made the long 24-hour journey with his niece, Rasoa, and a large group of other families from the Ifanadiana area. None of them knew for certain if they would receive surgery once arriving in Antsirabe, but they felt hopeful for the possibility of a new beginning.
Arriving at the mission site, Justin was shocked after witnessing the scene before him: There were hundreds of people who looked like him.
Rasoa carefully documented Justin's entire cleft care process.
Taking photos every step of the way, Rasoa, without even realizing it, was creating a record of events that would one day have the potential to change the lives of more people like her uncle.
After undergoing his comprehensive health evaluation, Operation Smile medical volunteers deemed that Justin was healthy enough to receive surgery.
He shared with volunteers that he wasn’t nervous going into the operating room. He simply felt anticipation to see the change in his appearance after the procedure.
Rasoa was thrilled to call her mother, Justin’s sister, and tell her the surgery was a success.
When Justin saw his new smile for the first time, he was delighted with the result.
“Thank you for caring for me,” he said to the Operation Smile team.
Returning home, he no longer felt the need to cover his mouth when talking to people or hide from interactions with others.
Even those who’d abandoned him in the past were willing to reconcile and join him in celebration of his life-changing surgery.
His once estranged 26-year-old son reunited with him.
Even his ex-wife, who left him because of his cleft condition, wanted to reconcile and try again at their marriage, but he declined. Justin said that he would rather start a relationship with someone new.
Today, Justin hopes to help more people like him.
With the photos Rasoa took during the medical mission, he can do just that.
“We want to help Operation Smile Madagascar find more patients,” Rasoa said. “We have photos, so we can explain what happens at the mission.”
Justin now happily lives his life as a subsistence farmer and refuses to let his cleft condition define him any longer.
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