SOUTH SUDAN — For many children in South Sudan, suffering from a cleft lip and palate means a lot more than just looking different. These children are often relentlessly bullied, outcasted by society, and can even be neglected by their parents simply because of the condition these kids have endured since birth.

In the more remote areas of South Sudan, there are no roads leading to hospitals capable of treating cleft lip and palate, leaving people helpless as they are unable to heal their condition. Samaritan’s Purse Mission Aviation Services meets this critical need by converting their DC-3 plane from carrying cargo to transporting multiple families into areas where their nurses can perform cleft lip surgeries to change each child’s life forever by curing their condition and allowing each family to hear the Gospel.

There’s always a stigma that people have when they have some kind of a congenital deformity, but over here, their deformity can mean life or death if they’re not left to die. They’re ostracized, and they go through life just being second, third, fourth class citizens.

Justin Bidali – Samaritan’s Purse:

Children cannot even access schools. They are bullied. They are laughed at. They are just seen as people who who are not supposed to be in the community.

There are certain tribes that name their children deformed. They’re given that name when they’re born. That’s their identity it’s considered a curse on the family. I’ve seen children with with burn marks all over their body, where we were told that the local doctor and the tribe tried to get the evil spirit out by burning the child.

Dr Cindy Gregg – Surgeon:

To come here and be able to do a surgery and completely change the trajectory of their life completely. It’s fantastic.

Beth Thompson – Samaritan’s Purse:

Samaritan’s purse runs cleft lip and palate surgical teams around the globe. We want to go to the places that are the least stretched patients that would never have access to come to surgery. There’s no road access in these countries.

Patrick Harney – Samaritan’s Purse:

In South Sudan, there’s really no other way to get around other than the air. If there wasn’t airplanes, nobody would get there as far.

Dr John Phillips – Surgeon:

These moms and dads have never, ever been in a vehicle, are trusting enough to take their children and step into an airplane.

Dr Andrew Chidester – Emergency Physician:

This is the culmination of sometimes months or even years of waiting and anticipation.

Dr Paul Lim – Surgeon:

We’re just getting set up to, start our first cases here. Cleft lip surgeries. If it’s prepared well then it changes everything.

Jennifer Bender – Samaritan’s Purse:

The little ones are just kind of touching their fingers to their lips. They’re just staring at themselves because they can’t believe that their lip has been made whole.

Dr Andrew Chidester:

Within a couple of hours, they’ve repaired this very obvious defect on their face and really changed the trajectory of their lives.

The local chaplains here will have a name changing ceremony after the child has a surgery, so they get to pick up a new name. It’s a great illustration of all of our own rebirth in Christ.

Dominic Olelangomoi – Samaritan’s Purse:

Yes. the doctors fix the hair, the mouth. But we also pray that their heart will be fixed with a gospel.

Jonathan Koski – Samaritan’s Purse:

And we pray, Lord, especially that they would just come to know you and your love for them. You just pray, your hand on us as we fight, and, we just give you all the glory, and. And we thank you. We love you. In your name, Jesus. Amen.

Oftentimes, we fly people and supplies into a location, but we’re just a link in that chain.

We don’t see the end result. So to be able to pick people up from the remote locations and bring them for the surgery and then two days later, returning them home, that’s just incredible.

Sam Trexler – Samaritan’s Purse:

Transporting them back and forth and seeing the results afterwards. And just how much of a difference is made in their life, is just a really cool thing to be a part of.

Jonathan Koski – Samaritan’s Purse:

You know, this might be the only opportunity for these people to hear the gospel. It might be our one shot. And yeah, Lord willing, they’ll hear and respond and then take that back to the communities all over the country.

Karen Daniels – Samaritan’s Purse:

Seeds have been planted here. And as they go home transformed, they’ll remember the father’s love as well.

Beth Thompson:

You know, these patients have a lot of things that they’ve been carrying for many years, and they have a lot of psychosocial hurt and pain and trauma in their life. And we get to come alongside and not just minister to fixing their lift or fixing their pallet, which is very life transformative. But we have the opportunity to come alongside and say, while your whole life you’ve maybe been told you don’t matter, you’re not good enough for school, you’re not good enough to get a job.

The Lord sees you. He saw you so far away in your village that he called you to come here, and he cares about you deeply.

Oh, they’re so precious, but just special to be able to take care of them. This. This is my meaning of life. This is. This is why I do what I do. It’s beautiful to be able to share the hope of Jesus with them.

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Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) program is committed to meeting the critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease, and natural disaster. We stand ready to respond at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever disaster strikes. The DART specializes in providing water, food, shelter, and medical care while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

CONTACT: Gabrielle Bouquet, news@samaritan.org

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