It was late in the day on our final day of screening. As darkness was descending and the temperature was dipping, a bus rolled in from the Sonitpur District to our screening site in Guwahati. Onboard were tired parents and children who had been on the bus for 10 hours. A flat tire on the journey had doubled the travel time and they looked anxious – worried that perhaps they had arrived too late to be chosen for surgery.
Our medical volunteers were waiting at their stations to begin the process of evaluating each and every one of these children for surgery. For most of these children, it was the first time they had ever been examined by a doctor.
These families clearly were among the poorest of the poor in Assam, a state in Northeast India. In their hands, they clutched a few belongings for the journey – not knowing how long they would be staying in this place that was so far from home.
Near the end of the line of tired patients, we spotted 5-year-old Anisha Tasa and her 27-year-old mother, Sosila. They were dressed in sweaters to keep them warm in temperatures that dip low into the 50s at night. But underneath their warm and dirty sweaters were beautiful dresses. Mom wore a lovely red and gold sari and some gold bangles. Anisha was dressed in a tangerine-colored tunic and pants with lace-up black shoes. Her curly black hair was tightly knotted in two small ponytails.
It appeared that they had worn the very best clothes on the most important journey of Anisha’s life. Yet, we discovered that these were not their clothes. Mom only had 2 tattered dresses back home in her village. Anisha’s old ragged clothes wouldn’t do for her first visit to the doctor.
This family had bought these clothes on credit. They spent 25% of a month’s wages for clothing they felt was suitable for this journey to Guwahati – the site of the Operation Smile mission. I’m sure they felt that if they looked their best, perhaps they would stand a better chance of being chosen for surgery.
They live about 200 kilometers from Guwahati – in a village where life is hard for families whose only means of survival is working in rice paddies and on tea plantations to make enough income to feed their families.
Yet, rice farming is not enough to feed Sosila’s three children. So, to help support her family, she does road construction work – a job that only the most desperate woman would perform. Her husband didn’t accompany her on this trip. He was back home working in the rice paddies to help make sure the other two children at home could have food to eat.
Anisha’s enormous brown eyes stared in amazement at the flurry of activity as she moved from station to station – being screened and examined by our team of doctors. This was the very first time a doctor had ever examined her. And, surprisingly, she was not scared at all. In fact, she seemed to enjoy the attention of the doctors and nurses.
Sosila never had any money to go to a doctor about her lip. In a good month when both she and her husband are working, they make $50. Surgery was always out of the question.
Sosila clearly loves her daughter. She told us that when Anisha was born, she cried and cried as she looked at her daughters deformed lip. She had never seen a child with a cleft lip before and she was scared.
The neighbors told her that it was her fault. They said that the reason her daughter was born this way was because she “cut vegetables” (harvested) while she was pregnant. (We learned that this is a common superstitious belief in this area.)
She was grief-stricken by the sight of her daughter, tormented by the neighbors, and fearful that her baby wouldn’t even survive.
“When I tried to nurse her, the milk would come out of her nose and I thought she would die. I wanted to go for help, but we didn’t have any money.”
It’s been difficult for Sosila to watch her daughter being ridiculed and tormented on the streets of her town for the last five years. When she walks the streets, the kids make fun of her.
“Sometimes, the neighbors hit my daughter because they are frightened of her.
“The children never allow her to play with them. They say, ‘Your lip is cut, you aren’t any good. Stay away from us.’
“We are so poor and I don’t have any money to help her. It makes me feel so sad. I didn’t do anything wrong.
Amazingly, Anisha goes to school, even though the other children are cruel to her.
“They treat her so badly at school. They tell her to get away from them and she comes home and cries. But then she will still go back the next day.”
Anisha is a smart girl with so much potential – and her mother realizes that. Anisha writes the alphabet for us in Assamese – and then she recites the alphabet in English, with the coaching help of our translator. Sosila never learned to read and write, and she longs for her daughter to be educated and have opportunities that were never possible for her.
But right now, she has one big concern.
“How will she ever get married? That is my biggest worry of all. I never saw a child like this in my life before.
“If only I had money, I would have gotten help for her. But I had no money. But I always had hope that someday, she could be helped.”
Finally, after five years of waiting, her hopes were fulfilled when she heard the news she had always dreamed of.
One week ago, a neighbor told her that Operation Smile was coming to Guwahati– a city she had never visited before . She rushed out and bought their new clothes on credit. She borrowed shoes from a neighbor for Anisha to wear – she doesn’t own any shoes of her own.
“I was so excited when I heard the news – I kept telling Arisha that she could finally get surgery.”
When they boarded the district bus to come to our mission site, they were surrounded by other children with cleft lips. It was the first time they’d ever laid eyes on other children born with facial deformities. The sight was a comfort to Sosila.
“I was delighted,” Sosila told us. “Now I know that I am not the only mother who has a child with this problem.”
Sosila was hungry, tired and a little nervous about the events to come. Anisha seemed calm and quite delighted by the attention she was getting.
Sitting on a chair in her new dress, clicking her black shoes together, she drew her letters and numbers with a crayon we had given her. She loves to draw and seems to have a quiet understanding of the amazing events that are about to unfold in her life.
Her adoring mom wraps her arms around her daughter and tells us how she feels after so many years of suffering.
“I never gave up. I always had hope that someday she could have this surgery – but I knew that I would never have the finances to afford it. I was so excited to hear that everything was free – we could get free transportation, free lodging, and we would not have to pay for surgery.
“Now, I hope that after her surgery, she will grow up and become a great person.”
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