Inspirational tale, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
“I want a home, I’d even drawn in my family members too”, the nine-year-old girl, Melanie from the Philippines, without her palms on her hands, with a prosthetic for her right leg, smiled so radiantly with her once shut mouth, waiting for an adoptive family, she’d optimistically, drew out her dreams, and her artwork was found by the “Hui-Fu Lo Facial Deformity Foundation”, they’d made her paintings into a calendar now.
The Hui-Fu Lo Facial Deformity Foundation hosted its 2017 Not-for-Profit Calendar Awards Ceremony, took twelve paintings from children with facial deformities from Cambodia, the Philippines, as well as Taiwan, who’d won, because of their cleft palate, congenital facial deformities, after multiple surgeries, they were able to fix up their once-broken faces, and now, they’re drawing out their complete stories, moving the world.
Melanie was the youngest winner, because of a congenital condition, she’d lacked palms, and only had her left foot intact, her lips were almost completely shut, and could only get food through the feeding tubes; at age two-and-a-half, she’d undergone surgery, to get her mouth to open, at age three, the doctors fixed her broken palate, and then, Melanie finally had her very taste of food, ice cream, last year, she underwent surgery to separate her jaws, and four years from now, she’s undergoing her fourth surgery.
Melanie was the tenth child in her home, since she was born, she was left in an orphanage, he’d waited for a family to adopt her for nine years now. With the prosthetics, she’d learned to swim, to run, and to ride her bicycle, and her biggest wish was to have a home. She’d started drawing since she was only two years old, she’d drawn out her home, and introduced the members, there’s dad, mom, and older brother, the four of them were holding hands, standing in front of the house on the lawn.
the Filipino girl with her drawing, photo from UDN.com…
Huei-Fang Cheng is twelve, with a serious cleft palate, from her upper lips, extending into the throat, she had, undergone five surgeries already, she took her award winning work said, “I drew an elderly grandmother, watering a plant with a young child, the plant is about to wither and die, they’d worked hard, tended to it, until it bloomed, like how children with deformities, after being looked after with care, can grow up safe and sound too.”
Huei-Fang’s eyes were very separated, she had slanted eyes, and her classmates would laugh at her often, she’d lost her self-confidence, couldn’t speak aloud, didn’t dare make friends, nor does she make requests to be friends with someone, she’d become, invisible. But, her friend who’d accompanied her growing up treated her like her best friend, they were inseparable, with the support of her best friend’s friendship, along with taking up art, Huei-Fang slowly regained her confidence back again.
So, all of these children only need our love, and yet, it’s really hard, when we encountered those who have these facial deformities, and although we know we shouldn’t, we still couldn’t help but gawk at them, and that made them feel ashamed, and so, it’s up to us, “normal” people in the population, to make these individuals feel accepted by the rest of the world, so they won’t have to suffer, living in isolation anymore…
Life, the Obstacle Course 