People born with a cleft lip are frequently shunned by society in South Sudan. The condition is often attributed to sorcery, and those with it are made outcasts. For the past three years, Samaritan’s Purse has brought patients from all over the country to the capital, Juba, to have their cleft lips repaired. In 2012, they ranged in age from 2 months to 40 years, and nearly all came with tragic tales of emotional, and sometimes physical, abuse because of their condition. One by one, patients were taken into the operating room with deformities, and one by one they were carried into the recovery room with normal lips. Family members’ faces lit up when they saw the dramatic difference.
