Dadaab is a town located in Kenya 100 kilometers from the Kenya-Somali border. It serves as a UN refugee camp for 275,000 Somalis who have fled from violence provoked by political and civil unrest in Somalia. The next paragraph is an excerpt from a handwritten letter of introduction presented to us by a young patient from Dadaab when he was first seen in 2007.
“I am Somali by nationality, aged 17 years. [I am] a refugee registered under [the] UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). I have currently fled from Mogadishu and [am a] disabled person who cannot speak properly due to cleft [lip and] palate. People abuse me with my defect that God has created in me. My age mates always abuse and criticize me for my defect. I cannot play with my age mates due to this problem. I am about to suicide myself. I want to be rehabilitated [to] the most near way of personal beauty.”
Before surgery in 2007 and today
The patient has subsequently returned for further palate surgery. We received the following typed note from him:
“I would like to thank…my two surgeons and young lady who treated me like their baby and carried out their operation successfully without keeping anything back. My…words cannot describe how happy I am but I am very sorry not to [re]call your names somehow. However, you actually won to reform and build my beauty, which people and I enjoy…nicely. I can only say thank you because I can’t repay you for [all] your help. Forever you will…remain in my heart.”
About Face 