Adeline in Rwanda

We visited Adeline today. She lives with her grandfather and her mother high on a hill overlooking a fertile valley. She told me that she doesn't want to remember the "old" Adeline, the one with the hole in the middle of her face. Years of taunting and teasing has left emotional scars. She had gone to school, but quit because of the way the other kids treated her. Today she has a new smile and a new life. She is no longer called names. People don't laugh at her anymore and at school she tells me, they must think she is a new student, because she is treated well, just like other "normal" kids. So for her the past is just that...past and gone. Today is a new and happy time.

Adeline said, "Before the surgery I was not happy with my life. Other kids were laughing at me. They teased me. The kept calling me "Cleft Girl" and "the girl with ughly lips."

Now I am happy because now I am going to school and other kids are not teasing me. Now I have a new life. Cleft Girl is now history. I don't even want to think about it. I want to thank all the people who contributed to get my lips fixed. Thank you so so so much!"