Because of you, baby Mileny is smiling again!

Isabel and her husband didn’t know what to do. They had just welcomed their second child into the world – a precious little girl who they named Mileny – and were shocked to see that she had been born with a cleft lip and palate. In their tiny mountain village of rural Peru, no one had ever seen a birth defect like this before, and no one they asked knew what to do.

Shortly after Mileny’s birth, Isabel’s 5-year-old son told his elementary school teacher that his sister had been born with a cleft lip. Through his teacher and a chain of other people in different cities, Isabel and her husband learned that there was a MAP-supported surgical mission team visiting the city of Lima. The team would be performing cleft lip and palate repairs for children in need – at no charge.

Mivheck Saukani was only 10 years old, and already has lost both parents. In Malawi, where he lives, more than 16% of the population are considered orphans or vulnerable children.

Thankfully, Mivheck was one of the lucky ones, finding refuge at an orphanage where he at least could have three meals a day and a roof over his head. Malawi is a poor country, however, and even with the help of the orphanage staff, medicine and healthcare were still out of reach for Mivheck and the other children.

So when the child began losing weight and experiencing severe stomach cramps, the nurse at the orphanage immediately suspected intestinal parasites.

Fortunately, a visiting medical mission team happened to come to the orphanage that week, and they had medicines from MAP International. The team had no prior knowledge of Mivheck’s condition, but their box of supplies happened to contain just the medicine that he needed.

The doctors gave Mivheck a dose of the medicine that would eradicate the worms. “I am so glad to have been able to provide this through MAP,” said Dr. Kimberly Hanigar, the mission team leader. Without this basic essential medicine, Mivheck would have continued to lose weight at an alarming rate, eventually suffering severe malnutrition and chronic disease that could have ultimately resulted in his death.

When Isabel and Mileny arrived in Lima, the surgical team set off to work. Dr. Ryan Brown, the mission team leader, describes the scene of Isabel seeing her daughter’s face for the first time after her operation. “It was very emotional for everyone in the recovery room as Isabel held Mileny and shared her story of how far she had traveled.”

“The supplies and sutures donated by MAP were essential to complete this surgery,” says Dr. Brown. Mileny’s cleft lip was rather severe, so her surgery was incredibly transformative. “Because Isabel found our group and we were able to help Mileny at such a young age, we hope that Mileny will grow up with a very typical life for a young child in her village – just as she should!”

Now, thanks to MAP supporters, Mivheck has a chance to grow up healthy.

Life was already difficult for Blessing and her husband.

They live in Cameroon, an African country rife with violence from a civil war. In fact, Blessing’s husband had lost his job as a plantation laborer because of targeted violence. Now, they were struggling to feed their three children through subsistence farming and barely surviving.

When Blessing found out she was pregnant with a fourth baby, her heart sank. In ordinary circumstances, this would be joyful news; but in their current state of merely surviving each day, how could they possibly support another child?

Since they could not afford any specialized prenatal care, Blessing simply handled her pregnancy at home as best she could. She knew taking extra vitamins would be helpful for her, but there simply wasn’t enough money to buy anything more than what was necessary for survival. There was a healthcare center nearby, but Blessing often didn’t show up for her appointments because she knew she couldn’t afford the medicines and supplements the midwife would prescribe anyway.

Then one day, a volunteer from a MAP partner organization came to her village to distribute prenatal vitamins and Blessing eagerly began taking the supplements. Now that she felt like she actually had the power to do something to keep her unborn baby healthy and she began keeping her prenatal appointments.

The midwife at the health center told Blessing that she looked incredibly healthy compared to many other pregnant women, and inquired about her diet – what is your secret? Blessing then informed the midwife that her “secret” was simply the prenatal vitamins she was taking.

Several months later, Blessing delivered a happy, healthy baby. She sent a note to MAP’s partner expressing her thanks. “I am grateful for these vitamins and for how it greatly helped me to remain healthy and deliver a healthy baby. I will be glad to have some more to share with other pregnant women in my family and village because I have seen how good it is.”

MAP’s donation of prenatal vitamins not only made a life-changing difference for Blessing and her baby, but for 2,000 other women in seven different regions of Cameroon. So far this year, MAP has provided more than one million bottles of prenatal vitamins globally. The impact of a seemingly simple product cannot be measured, when we consider the lives and futures of the babies born to these women.

As MAP supporters, when you invest in the lives of expecting mothers, you are investing in their children too. And when you invest in children, you are investing in the future.