Richard was born with a cleft lip and his parents spent years trying desperately to have it repaired. They sacrificed all of their worldly goods in this endeavor. It nearly happened, he said.
Over, and over he was scheduled for surgery only to have the surgery rescheduled for another day. The long and grueling bus trips from his village to a doctor cost money, and what little money they had eventually ran out.
“I come from parents who loved me completely,” he said, adding that they also protected him completely, not allowing him to go to school. “My mother was afraid the other children would taunt me. She wouldn’t allow it.”
A Life of Responsibility and Resilience
He didn’t go to school until after his parents died. He was 18 at the time.
With three younger sisters and two younger brothers to house and feed, he continued his job working at neighboring farms, and with his siblings’ help, went to school for the first time. He believed then what he believes today, school is that important.
By the time he hit the first year of junior high the pressure to feed, clothe and house his siblings was too much.He needed to work full-time, so he did. His siblings eventually scattered and Richard now finds himself with a family of his own.
He farms a small piece of property in the Eastern Region of Ghana in a village called Okurasa, where he produces food for his wife and children. The little village has maybe 10 inhabitants. His small farm produces just enough food for them to eat. For income he toils in the neighboring fields.
Richard, who is 42, said he found refuge in the smallness of the village, away from the place of his birth and away from people. It was there he found a wife, and when he held the first born of his children he said he realized that the doctor was right – with or without the cleft he was a complete man. The importance of life lies in his soul, with God and in his family.
A Journey of Hope to Accra
He also said that it was through the grace of God he traveled to see the Alliance for Smiles doctors in Accra. A member of his church heard from a friend, who saw it on TV that the American doctors were in Ghana and offering the surgeries for free.
The same spirit that guided this gentle man through life brought him on the 20-hour journey to Accra on the chance his surgery could be done.
Neither his wife, nor his children knew why he was away from the farm. His life has been filled with so many disappointments that it made him afraid to tell them why he was going to be gone. It is that important to him, he said. He didn’t want them to share in the disappointment if it didn’t happen, only in joy if the surgery was a success.
All Richard was hoping for in life was to have his cleft lip changed, he said in broken English, choking back the tears. He believed the surgery would help him change his economic situation, and that if the surgery happened he would be able to get a better job.
A New Beginning
Richard was scheduled for surgery Thursday afternoon and the transformation was clearly miraculous. His shyness and gentle nature slowly blossomed, his inner joy surfacing when the team cheered as he looked into the mirror.
AFS surgeon, Dr. Chris Hauge, said he was honored to do the surgery, “He was very deserving, he had waited so long.”
When Richard finally got home, he was still wearing his surgical mask to cover his face. His family and the villagers asked about the mask but Richard told them he had fallen in a ditch and injured his lip, and the doctor had told him to wear the mask. What he didn’t tell them was that he had his bilateral cleft lip repaired and he continued to wear the mask for another 30 days.
When Richard finally did take off the mask, he told us that his wife was initially angry at him for not telling her about his cleft surgery. But when she got over being mad she kissed him “many times.
The villagers were so happy about his surgery they became overprotective, and were concerned something might happen to damage his new lip. They would not let him work and took care of him and his family for a year.
