A Sophmore at George Washington University, Mari Mora-Trubenbch just returned from Zimbabwe, Africa where she volunteered with Operation of Hope. This is her 6th mission with this all-volunteer surgical team that has given new smiles to over 2,300 children around the world.

Late last week in Harare, Zimbabwe the group worked on a cleft-lip baby named Apologize. "His mother came to the hospital on a day when it rained so hard that it looked like the rain was sideways," Jennifer Trubenbach wrote in an email from Africa. "She told us these are the tears we have cried to God for the help to our babies. Thank you for God's answer to prayer in coming here to help the people of Zimbabwe.

In less than two weeks Operation of Hope volunteers have fixed the faces of 70 children.

The Longview, WA based nonprofit - an all-volunteer medical team that donates surgeries to children in developing countries born with facial deformities - is back at work in Zimbabwe.

Since early May the 12-person team - including founder Dr. Joseph Clawson, a retired ear, nose and throat specialist - repaired 36 cleft lips, 33 cleft palates and started reconstructive work on the face of a child blown apart by a landmine. Volunteers come from Orange County, Malibu, Northern California, Oregon, Washington and Texas.

In the last 20 years, Operation of Hope has fixed the facial deformities of nearly 2,000 children worldwide. The nonprofit recently received $50,000 from actor Hugh Jackman following a donation contest he held on his official Twitter profile. The actor became familiar with the nonprofit's work after presenting a People Magazine Heroes Award to Jennifer Trubenbach, the group's executive director.

Trubenbach was selected for the award after she and her family mortgaged their home to help pay surgery for Beloved Jefeti, a Zimbabwean boy who lost half his face after a landmine blew up.

The 18-year-old's surgery is the organization's most recent success story. His facial reconstruction has drawn world-wide attention.

Beloved was 10 and living in rural Zimbabwe when he found a land mine in his grandmother's yard and, thinking it was a transistor radio, he put it in his mouth for better reception. It blew up. Zimbabwean doctors tried to put the lower half of his face back together using a piece of his own stomach tissue. The results were not good.

Then one day in the fall of 2006, Operation of Hope came to his village with promises of medical miracles. Beloved, then 15, asked if they could fix his face. They did.

Blessing, a 17-year-old Zimbabwe boy, had also suffered a similar fate. Operation of Hope's surgery made it possible for him to stop carrying a crusty dust cloth on his chest to wipe drool from his mouth.

When his surgery was over he told Trubenbach that he wanted to be a facial reconstructive surgeon one day.

Operation of Hope gave him a new laptop with educational software.

"He touched it over and over saying, 'What a nice machine, what a nice machine,'" Trubenbach said. "He told us of a story if his dog getting hit by a car and him sewing him up using fishing line.  He has charmed the hearts of all of us on the team."

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to contribute or volunteer: www.operationofhope.org
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