Carmen’s Story: A First Step Toward Hope
We first met Carmen in 2022, when she was not yet two years old. She arrived at the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center after a journey of more than thirteen hours from her small, remote village—reachable only by miles of rough dirt roads and a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Her family had been connected to the Moore Center through a community outreach team that visited her village and promised her parents they would try to help.
Before that visit, Carmen’s parents had been told by a local religious leader that their daughter’s facial differences meant she “did not deserve to live.” They knew this wasn’t true, but they had no access to specialists and no path forward.
Carmen was born with a Tessier cleft, a very rare craniofacial condition affecting her mouth, nose, and eyes. It was the first case of this severity our team had ever encountered on a Finn Foundation trip—rare even among experienced cleft surgeons in the United States.
It was clear that surgery would make a meaningful difference in her life and her family’s. Our primary goals were to help her eat and grow, protect her exposed eye, and improve the structure and function of her nose. Because her father earns the equivalent of five dollars a day, repeated long-distance travel for multiple surgeries would be nearly impossible. We wanted to do as much for her as we could do for her on this trip.
Under the care of an experienced FINN Foundation team—including Dr. James Phillips, one of the leaders of the Vanderbilt Cleft Lip and Palate Team—Carmen underwent a long, complex reconstruction. When we carried her downstairs to her father after surgery, he began to cry and said, “She looks like her mom now.”
Carmen spent several days recovering at the Moore Center before making the long journey home.
When she arrived, her entire village gathered to welcome her—a celebration of hope, relief, and gratitude.
Since then, Carmen has returned for an additional surgery, and she will likely need more procedures as she grows. But that first step was life-changing. It gave her the ability to thrive, to be seen, and to be embraced by her community with pride instead of fear.
This is the work your support makes possible.
This is what Giving Tuesday means to us—opening the door to care for children like Carmen, who would otherwise have no access at all.
Thank you for helping us continue this mission.
