Impact

Stories of Changed Lives

Trishna

Trishna is an 18-year-old girl from the central hilly region of Nepal. She is a student in the Plus 2 college. She was born with a large, hairy mole on the right side of her face. She used to cover her face with her hair to conceal the mole. Her parents became more worried as she approached marriageable age, knowing that she had very little chance of finding a husband who would marry a disfigured woman. She did not want to go to college because she was ridiculed and isolated by her peers. Trishna’s parents had accepted her deformity as being a lifetime curse and had no idea about the possibility of surgical correction.

Trishna came to know about CMAF through one of our outreach coordinators who educated Trishna and her parents about corrective surgery and how it would improve her life and dispel superstitions and beliefs in bad karma. Trishna comes from a lower middle class family and would not have been able to afford the surgery. CMAF covered all costs involved with the surgery and post-operative care.

Trishna had her surgery in May 2011. She was very happy with the results. She is now continuing her studies at college because her new look has given her more self-confidence.

Ritima

Ritima is a 6-year-old girl from the far eastern plains of Nepal. She was born with a condition known as syndactyly, which means fused fingers on both hands. Ritima was reluctant to go to school because of her abnormal-looking hands. She had been the subject of ridicule among her peers and feared due to superstitions about birth defects. She was isolated from her friends and community.

Ritima came to our attention while the mobile medical team was in Biratnagar, near her hometown, during one of our screening camps. Functionally, her condition did not handicap her, but if left untreated, it could cause the longer of the two fingers to bend towards the shorter one during growth, and leave it bent, even if separated. Once Ritima knew her fingers could be separated and look normal, she was very happy.

A key challenge in helping children like Ritima, who live in rural areas of Nepal, is that it can take many hours to reach the nearest clinic or medical assistance. From where Ritima lives, it usually takes more than 18 hours of bus travel to get to Kathmandu. Fortunately, she only had to travel 4-5 hours to get to Biratnagar.

Ritima had her surgery in Biratnagar in May 2011. She was delighted during the first dressing change to see her separated fingers. We did the surgery on only one hand because bandaging and plaster on both the hands makes it difficult for the children to take care of themselves. We will perform surgery on the other hand in August.