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A Healthy Smile is Just the Beginning®

Bouchra is the youngest of five children and the only one in her family to be born with a cleft. Her parents, and even her grandmother, had never seen anyone with a cleft before Bouchra was born. At first they were concerned about how to care for their daughter and make sure that she was feeding properly. Many infants with clefts have trouble feeding and need special bottles and formula.

Bouchra’s parents learned about Global Smile Foundation from neighbors and traveled from Tripoli to Beirut to meet the team in 2019. During the mission, our volunteers were able to perform surgery to repair Bouchra’s cleft lip. Although they were grateful, her family was still worried about the kind of life that their daughter would have after surgery. After meeting several patients who had previously received care, they were relieved to see such positive outcomes and felt confident that Bouchra would have a “bright future.”

During our November 2020 Mission in Beirut, the GSF team was able to perform a cleft palate repair for Bouchra, making her family very happy. After the surgery, her father told us that the sweetest present that he ever received is hearing his little daughter say Baba (father) for the first time.

Watch Bouchra’s Story

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