You + TF’s Circle of Care

You + TF’s
Circle of Care

Challenges

Extrinsic barriers to care exist in many forms. In some regions, inflation has made it much harder for parents to provide food for their children – and we know that healthy nutrition is critical to safe surgeries. Political instability also tends to make it more difficult for families to travel to receive care.

Successes

Transforming Faces has been able to respond to increased needs on the ground by dedicating over 1.8 million dollars (CAD) toward locally fulfilled Comprehensive Cleft Care – our most significant investment to date.

Did you know?

You are an integral part of TF’s Circle of Care! Transforming Faces relies on the generosity of its supporters to provide Comprehensive Cleft Care to children and families who need it most.

You help complete this circle – and we’re grateful!

Aina and Johari’s New Beginning

Cleft Care in Focus 

Additional Supports   

The moment Johari was born, Aina cried out to the doctor “Please, fix this!”. Discovering Johari’s facial anomaly was frightening and painful.

Her doctor told her that help might be available through a foreign surgical mission, but that for now she could only wait.

When Aina’s husband came to see the new baby, Johari’s appearance was not well received. Community beliefs suggest that a child with cleft brings shame upon the mother, and the whole family by extension. He departed the clinic-- the last time she would see him face to face. Aina was forced to start a new life far from their village.

Her determination to find a hopeful future for Johari was redoubled when she happened to meet another child born with cleft. The child’s mother told Aina about free cleft care offered locally by Transforming Faces’ partner, Santé Plus.

There, she learned how best to care for an infant with cleft, and she received nutritional support that helped increase Johari’s weight for a safe surgery. Critically, she also met mothers with similar experiences – which help her really believe that Johari’s cleft is nobody’s fault, and that she is not alone in this journey.

“For me, Johari is a gift from God. God must have given me a challenge, as a good thing for me”.

Your support makes stories like Johari’s possible.

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Aina and Johari’s community in Antsirabe

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Thank you to TF staff, partners and volunteers for photos featured in this report and to Sahil Ali for additional film and photography. Visual design by Jessica Orduz.

Edited by Kristian Wykes