Operation Smile volunteer Christine Stockton shares her stories with the children from LES about creating new smiles in Mombasa, Kenya.
Operation Smile volunteer Christine Stockton spoke to Lawrenceville Elementary School students about her October trip to Mombasa, Kenya.
During her trip, volunteer doctors and nurses operated on 127 children and adults with cleft lip and palate.
Seventy of the surgeries were performed on residents of Somalia, who spent seven days on a bus to get to Mombasa.
The children awaiting facial reconstructive surgery also had an opportunity to see their name written in print for the first time of their lives, on nametags created by the LES children.
Stockton shared with the students the orphanage she visited, filled with boys who previously lived on the street. At their school, children practiced their numbers by writing in the dirt, for there was only one stub of a pencil and no paper.
She gave the school donations of pencils and toothbrushes, donated by LES families on behalf of Operation Smile. She also gave them a soccer ball, a prized possession in a country where children create their own soccer balls out of plastic bags, tape and string.
