30 January 2007
THANK YOU
Gail Giebel
Dear Linda and Tomi,
I know you are both probably going crazy trying to do the last minute things before the Smile Train Conference in Ibadan. To encourage you a little, I wanted to let you know about the difference last year's smile train has made in one little boy's life.
Every Sabbath I drive student nurses out to a village near Ile-Ife to conduct a branch Sabbath school. Each week after I drop the students off in Asabi (where we hold the branch Sabbath School) I go on to the nearby village of Ijugbe to pick up an elderly man who likes to attend the branch Sabbath School but can't walk the two miles to get there. One Sabbath as I was going to pick up the elderly man, I happened to see a little barefoot, raggedly dressed boy beside the road. Most children jump and wave and smile as I pass by. This one just watched me. As I got right next to him I realized that he had cleft lip. The next Wednesday I stopped and found his family living in a mud hut near where I first saw him. Brothers, sisters, aunties, and his dad crowded around to see what the strange Oyingbo (white) lady was coming to their house for. The family did not speak English so I went and got someone to interpret. I asked if they would like to have the hole in their son's face fixed so he would look like the rest of the family. They responded that they had gone to a couple of traditional medicine men who had done some things but nothing had worked. They had decided nothing could be done to help their boy. They seemed to be willing to try something again if there was really hope of improvement in his looks.
I went back to Tomi and asked how we could get the free surgery arranged for Sanjo. She told me the place to have the family go at the teaching hospital for evaluation. The next week I met with the family and told them. A couple of weeks later they told me they had been for a clinic visit and were scheduled for another appointment in a couple of weeks. About that time I left on furlough.
On one of my first visits out to the village after returning from our furlough, I was waved to a stop by two little boys grinning from ear to ear, jumping up and down. It was only after I stopped that I realized who it was. It was Sanjo and his little brother. You can hardly tell that Sanjo ever had a big hole in his upper lip. Only those who look closely can see the faint scar. His parents are VERY grateful for the miracle that came to there lives through the work of SmileTrain in Nigeria!
Your efforts are more than worthwhile in the life of one little boy living in Ijugbe Village, Osun State, Nigeria. Thanks for all the work you put into these conferences which make it possible for more professionals to be trained and more people who really need it to have access to the care necessary to make them whole!
Last Sabbath, Sanjo and his brother were singing lustily in our branch Sabbath school. They told me as I took them home, that I should tell you THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Praying all goes well for the upcoming conference.
Gail
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