Stories

"I am just a farmer,
but now I know that I can help my granddaughter
and other children in the village."

ANDRES - Bogota, Colombia

RAQUEL DUENAS - Manibi Province, Ecuador

MANIPAL - Hyderabad, India

SILVIA - San Pedro Sula, Honduras

WENDY - Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras

ANDRES - Bogota, Colombia

At the conclusion of the August 2005 EARTHSPEAK training camp in Bogota, Colombia, Andres (shown above with his mother), turned in the following handwritten letter:

HOLA! Te doy muchas gracias por haber me brindado esta oportunidad le doy gracias a Dios por haber te conocido, porque, tienes mucho amor en tu corazon para compartirlo con las personas, es un don que ta ha dado Dios.

La proxima oportunidad que nos volva mos a ver estare mostrandote que si estoy cumpliendo mi meta del habla.

Dios ta Bandigo

TE QUIERO MUCHO Y TE EXTRANTIARE

-Andres

RAQUEL DUENAS - Manibi Province, Ecuador

Pedro and Raquel Duenas have been Rotarians for 35 years. Raquel has received the Paul Harris award for her work on behalf of the children of Ecuador. Pedro has recently been nominated for the same award.

Raquel has had a special role in the Rotary. She works to help organize the surgical missions of Rostros Felices, Interplast, and the speech work of EARTHSPEAK.

We fondly call Raquel the "Madre Teresa" of the children of Manibi province. Her dedication is unwavering and comes from the heart. Sixteen years ago, Raquel's son Pedro was killed in a tragic automobile accident just as an Interplast team arrived for their annual surgical visit. Pedro had been a longtime supporter of Interplast and often drove their supplies up from Guayaquil.

Raquel vowed she would continue to work to get help for children with cleft lip and palate, and she would do so in memory and honor of her son Pedro.

Each year, Interplast teams arrive in Portoviejo in late November or early December. All the team members purchase flowers and visit the graveside of Pedro to remember the dedication of this young man and to be grateful for the continuing dedication of his mother.

No matter what is needed or the hour it is needed, Raquel will provide it. She speaks only Spanish. We speak only English. Yet the language of the heart can always be understood.

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MANIPAL - Hyderabad, India

Manipal and his father came to the Earthspeak speech camp in India dressed in the simple dress of the rural people and carrying all they owned on their backs. There were both barefoot. In the father's pocket was a bag of lentils, their food for the week they would be staying. He didn't know that food, transportation, and training were all provided at no cost.

The father knelt to bless the feet of the Earthspeak team as they walked into the room. He was a simple man from a remote village over 500 kilometers from Hyderabad. He brought his son to learn how to help him speak normally.

Father and son worked hard during that first visit. It was only a mini-camp, so not much help could be given. Six months later they appeared again, ready for more work and showing broad smiles and grateful hearts.

The next time the team saw Manipal and his father, they had made much progress. We could see the new confidence and hear the speech changes. Manipal's father felt such gratitude that he sang praise to the Earthspeak team in his native Telugu language.

One day when the parents were talking about the challenges of a child with cleft lip and palate, Manipal's father rose and told his story.

After his son's birth the family rushed to him and urged him to let the boy die. Just expose him and be done with it. The father was troubled and spent many days deliberating. The village health provider told the father that if he decided to kill the boy, the health provider would take him and raise him as his own.

Manipal's father chose life for his son. Their family cast them out, and they had to struggle on their own. When they heard about the free surgery they could get for Manipal, they took advantage of that opportunity. When they returned to the village, people began to say how lucky Manipal was to have gained a new appearance.

But his speech problems were severe, and Manipal could not attend school.

One day Manipal's father got a note from the hospital where the surgery was performed to tell him that Earthspeak would provide free speech training. Manipal and his father came to the speech camp, and they hoped and believed.

Today Manipal is the luckiest boy in his village. He is a handsome lad of 12. He and his father have shoes, and Manpial has money to go to school, thanks to an Earthspeak benefactor.

The photo of Manipal, his father, and the EARTHSPEAK intern was taken because the teachers at Manipal's school have built an altar to the luckiest boy in the village and they wanted pictures of the angels who had made it possible.

 

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SILVIA - San Pedro Sula, Honduras

She came in for evaluation, head down. lacking confidence but filled with hope that maybe these people who came from America might be able to help her speak. Silvia was born with a cleft lip and palate. She was unable to have either birth defect corrected until she was in late childhood. It was not until she was 11 years of age that she found a visiting Interplast, surgical team from the U.S. and could get these defects corrected. By that time the pattern of social rejection and debilitating speech was well established.

Silvia had other life traumas too. Poor and lacking much education, she struggled to live each day. She had found a strong faith in God and her church was the one strong support she had.

This remarkable young woman attended the first speech camp ever held in Honduras. She came alone, as she had no one who could be her teacher. Gladys, a delightful woman who had taken the Professionals course given by EARTHSPEAK a few days earlier, stepped forward and volunteered to be Silvia's teacher. This was no small gift. Silvia and Gladys would need to work daily for many months. Dedication was required.

Gladys and Silvia spent the weeklong speech camp learning to work together. Then they set to work in earnest. They spent each day working 10 or 15 minutes using the carefully prepared manual written in Spanish. Four months later, a visiting EARTHSPEAK team came to review patient's progress.

Silvia had been transformed! This time she entered the evaluation room with a broad smile and handed her progress book to us eagerly. She was delighted to repeat the testing material and it was easy to see why. Her speech was now understandable with only minor difference from normal. But there was other news as well. Gladys had given Silvia another gift. The gift of learning a trade. Gladys paid to have Silvia learn to be a baker. Silvia was in the first few months of an 18-month program. This trade would permit her to earn a good living in San Pedro Sula.

Six months later, EARTHSPEAK arrived again to review Silvia's progress. This time they found a beautiful young woman, normal in all aspects. She spoke with almost no detectable difference. She no longer worked with Gladys as she could now do her practice and self correction herself. Her baking school was nearing completion and she was entering college in computer technology. But there was more. She told us she had entered two singing contests and WON! There was not a dry eye in the room as Silvia gave us her gift. She sang for our video camera. The tears grew as our translator told us the words of the song. They began with "Now I Am the Person God Meant Me To Be."

Silvia taught us that everyone has a song in his or her heart that wants to be sung. It only takes a little work and love to bring it forth.

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WENDY - Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras

Wendy is four years old and lives in a remote village near Santa Rosa de Copan in the mountains of Honduras.

She was born with a cleft lip and palate and abandoned by her parents soon thereafter. To be born with such a deformity usually assigns the mother and child to a life of rejection, poverty and isolation. It is held that clefts and other deformities are caused by witchcraft or looking at an eclipse of the moon. The mother is held responsible. This often results in her being cast out by her husband, his family and even her own family. One cannot know or judge the circumstances that led to the abandonment of Wendy by our standards.

Her maternal grandmother and grandfather took the wee one in and have raised her as their own. Her grandparents did all they could to help Wendy overcome the challenges of cleft lip and palate. Volunteer surgical teams surgically repaired her cleft lip and palate from the U.S. in a nearby town. The scars healed but Wendy's speech remained unintelligible. She became shy, withdrawn and socially isolated. The grandparents knew of nothing else that could be done. There was no place to go for help.

Then her grandfather heard a speech camp was coming to Santa Rosa de Copan, a town he could travel too to find help. He brought Wendy, an effort that took enormous courage. He had to travel many miles and trusted that the money he needed for bus fare would be given to him as promised. He also trusted that he and his little granddaughter would have a place to sleep and food as had been promised. He knew nothing of city life. He is a poor dirt farmer who seldom left his small plot of land. He knew nothing of being a teacher or how speech could be corrected, but his love for his granddaughter gave him the motivation to risk beyond his fears.

The first day of the camp he was overwhelmed with all he would need to learn and wondered if he could. By the second day his confidence was growing and by day 3 he and Wendy were succeeding in practice sessions and smiles abounded.

At the conclusion of the 5-day speech camp, this once hesitant farmer, addressed an assembly of over 60 people and told them his story. He told of his initial anxiety and fear and of his confidence and joy in knowing that he had the tools he needed to change his granddaughter's life. He told of how hard it was for him to begin to be educated in a topic he knew nothing of. He knew more of the fields and dirt and plants. He also told of how hard he and Wendy and the other parents worked together after the speech camp day to make sure they would all succeed. No child could be left behind. It was too important.

When certificates were given at the end of the week, this proud grandfather demonstrated how well he could teach speech. His granddaughter responded correctly to each lesson he presented to the group. When applause was given, a shy, sweet smile crossed over Wendy's face. Together she and her grandfather stood to receive their certificates of participation and red hats with Camp Earthspeak written on them.

It is then that he asked to speak and told their story. He also told of his renewed commitment to Wendy and her rehabilitation and he dedicated himself to being the resource in his remote village that would help all other children and families in similar circumstances.

In one week in Honduras, a man, a child and a future came together to begin a journey that can continue helping succeeding generations overcome the speech deficits of cleft palate for all time to come.

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