New Smiles in Jordan

Yesterday was the final day of surgery and today Team Jordan is packing up to go home. Altogether, the team conducted 95 surgeries – 55 on Jordanian children and 40 on the Iraqi and Kurdistan children. To see the glowing faces of mothers and fathers who brought their children from all over the region for this event was beyond fulfilling.

One of the children from Iraq was a 5-month baby named Banin who was carried lovingly by her father. We learned that the baby had been born with a minor cleft and had surgery in Baghdad at 3 months by some local surgeons who were not a part of Operation Smile. Unfortunately, the surgery widened the cleft and she now had a gaping hole in her face that made it difficult for her to feed. When her mother saw that her daughter’s condition was worse, she left and never returned. So now, Banin’s father was on his own, caring for his infant, and hoping to correct the damage that had been done. Banin’s surgery went very smoothly and the smile on the face of her dad when he first saw her in post-op says it all.

We also met Qamar, a beautiful 7-year old girl with an elegant face and extremely sad eyes. Her mother told us that Qamar had witnessed her father’s death in Iraq when insurgents pulled him from his taxi and shot him to death in front of his young daughter. She too was here to have a previous surgery repaired. The day after the surgery, she was doing remarkably well – one of the children who seemed to rebound extremely quickly from the surgery. Even though her cleft had not been severe, after 5 days of spending time with her on the flight over from Iraq, during pre-screening and pre-op, we had never once seen her smile. The day after surgery, as she sat in post-op awaiting discharge, she smiled for the very first time.