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Operation Smile Ghana: Faustina, The Tailor of her Future

19 images Created 19 Dec 2019

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  • Faustina aged 17 poses for a portraits at the patient shelter during Operation Smile’s 2018 mission to Koforidua. Ghana.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • Faustina aged 17 poses for a portraits at the patient shelter during Operation Smile’s 2018 mission to Koforidua. Ghana. “I can’t go anywhere because of my cleft, I can’t attend school. I just spend my days helping my mother at home. I have my family, my siblings and parents, but I have no friends and I feel sad. I know that if I have the surgery, I will make friends.”<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • Faustina and her father, Mohammed, ride on a bus provided by Operation Smile Ghana to the medical mission site in Koforidua.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
    GHA_2018_Koforidua_006_Faustina_Befo...JPG
  • Operation Smile volunteer nurse Kokui Dziedzom Klutse gathers Faustina's vital signs during her medical evaluation at the Eastern Regional Hospital.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
    GHA_2018_Koforidua_006_Faustina_Befo...JPG
  • Operation Smile Ghana medical director and cleft surgeon Dr. Opoku Ampomah walks with Faustina to the Operating Room.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • Operation Smile Ghana medical director and cleft surgeon Dr. Opoku Ampomah tells Faustina what to expect during her 45 minute surgery.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • Operation Smile Ghana medical director and cleft surgeon Dr. Opoku Ampomah at the beginning of Faustina's surgery.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
    GHA_2018_Koforidua_006_Faustina_OR_0...JPG
  • Faustina looking in the mirror the day after her surgery, whilst waiting at the patient shelter.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • One year later... Faustina walks to work with her friends in her village in the Central Region of Ghana.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
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  • Faustina now 19 years old now works as a trainee seamstress in her village. “If, God willing, I'm able to graduate, I will be able to start my own shop and earn money to take care of my needs as well as my parents'. Because they have taken good care of me, it rests on my shoulders to also take care of them when they grow older.”<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
    GHA_2018_Koforidua_006_Faustina_Afte...JPG
  • Faustina at work with her fellow trainees at the seamstress shop.<br />
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(Operation Smile Photo - Zute Lightfoot)
    GHA_2018_Koforidua_006_Faustina_Afte...JPG
  • Memunatu, the village’s head seamstress (centre) says that she expects her to have a bright future in the craft.<br />
“What I've seen from Faustina is very encouraging, When you teach her something, she has that enthusiasm to learn, and she asks a lot of questions. And since she started, she has been improving.”
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  • Faustina's family home where she lives with her father Mohammed, step mother and 6 younger siblings.
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  • Faustina's and family pose for a photo outside the family home.
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  • Faustina preparing food for a celebration to mark one year since Faustina's successful surgery.
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  • When asked if she has been able to forgive and befriend some in her community who treated her so badly, Faustina replies; “I have forgiven them, I've realised that they have this sort of guilt in them because of how they acted towards me before my surgery. And now that they have accepted me, deep in their minds, you realise that they have this sort of ill feeling of guilt in them. But for me, I don't hold anything against them. I have accepted them as friends.”
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  • Faustina speaking with friends during a celebration to mark one year since Faustina's successful surgery.
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  • Faustina tells us that before surgery, when she dreamed, she would have her cleft lip and that those dreams would be sad. But after surgery, those dreams ceased and that she would be as she is today, singing in front of her church. Now that she can — and does — sing before the congregation, she says she feels like her dreams have come true.
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  • Faustina poses with a photo of how she used to look before surgery.
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