Eden Was Worth the Wait
Waiting is for cheese, wine, and love. Children with clefts need healthcare now

Tafitasoa and Heriniaina already knew better than most that the best things in life take time. They met in primary school but only started dating after each had earned their bachelor’s degrees.
They didn’t need to wait much longer to understand that their love didn’t need to ripen any further. They were ready to get married. Baby boy Harena came along not long afterwards.
With their son and one another, Tafitasoa and Heriniaina felt their family was nearly perfect. All that was missing was more children to shower love upon.
But money was tight. They would need to wait some more.
By early 2020, when Harena was five, Tafitasoa and Heriniaina decided they were at last in a good place to try for a second. Then quarantine split them apart for an entire month.
It was heartbreaking, but nothing they couldn’t handle. And as they well knew, absence can pull already fond hearts even closer. Tafitasoa conceived shortly after she and Heriniaina were reunited at last. Her ultrasounds only revealed another healthy son on the way and a bright future for the whole family.
The couple had no idea their new baby had a cleft until they held him for the first time. It was shocking, but they were determined to overcome this obstacle, too, with love, care, patience, and dogged determination.
“I was surprised to hear that my baby had a cleft”, Heriniaina said. “Once I saw him, I told myself that he is my child, and I will do my best to take care of him and his condition”.
Living apart through a global pandemic with a toddler soon felt like nothing compared to the challenge of caring for an infant with a hole in his mouth. He struggled to breathe. He gagged every time Tafitasoa put him to her breast.
They needed help desperately, and their family offered none. An uncle blamed the boy’s cleft on Tafitasoa and Heriniaina, insisting they must have broken some taboo. Holding her crying, wheezing, hungry baby in her arms, Tafitasoa pleaded to other relatives for help, but they made it known that their sympathies were with the uncle. Clearly, this child was a punishment. And she must deserve it.

But Tafitasoa and Heriniaina never lost faith in themselves or that happier times lay ahead for their child. They named him Eden.
Their Biggest Test Yet
Eden’s doctor suggested they take him to the regional office of a charity that occasionally flies American doctors and nurses into Madagascar to perform cleft surgeries for a week or two. They rushed him there fast as they could, but no one was waiting to greet them; the office was closed, and with the pandemic still disrupting travel plans around the world, no indication of when they might return. They tried again and again and each time met only a locked door and dark windows.
Ordinarily sunny, Tafitasoa came to fear that Eden might never receive the surgery he so needed. She snuggled him close, refused to let him out of her sight or stop trying to help him keep even a little bit of food down, no matter how many times he spat it up again.
Just when things seemed bleakest, Eden’s hand started to swell. They took him to a different doctor, who referred them to another doctor, who asked if they had ever considered cleft surgery.
They told him their story. He smiled and told them to go to Santé Plus, a hospital in their city, for a consultation. “I know a specialist there”, he said.
Tafitasoa and Heriniaina arrived at Santé Plus to open doors and open arms.
The staff explained that Eden would need to get to a healthy weight before they could safely perform surgery on him. But then they had good news, the first Tafitasoa and Heriniaina had heard since they held Eden for the first time: Thanks to the generous donations of people around the world, their baby would receive the nutrition support, surgery, and all other cleft care he would ever need 100 % free thanks to Smile Train.
Life and Death
Unlike other cleft charities, Smile Train believes children in need should never be left to wait for the lifesaving healthcare they need. That’s why we never send outside doctors into then out of other countries on short-term programmes. Instead, we invest in training and equipping local medical specialists in 75+ countries to make high-quality, local, comprehensive cleft care available for free 24/7 in their own communities, no matter what.

The Santé Plus team immediately taught Tafitasoa techniques for feeding Eden.
It still wasn’t easy, but a new surge of hope brought Tafitasoa’s natural determination and enthusiasm roaring back. In just a few months, Eden’s cheeks were chubby and his parents pinched them for good luck the whole way to the hospital for his free cleft surgery.
They were nervous. Tafitasoa struggled to hand him over to the surgeon and nearly didn’t. It was the anaesthesia — no one in either of their families had ever been under before. After snuggling him so close for so long, spending so many months as his one source of life and comfort, how could Tafitasoa let others knock him unconscious now? What if he woke up in the middle? What if he didn’t wake up at all?
“There was a moment of doubt”, she admitted. But ultimately, the local team had earned her trust. She gave Eden to the surgeon, said a prayer, and held her breath. And Heriniaina’s hand.

Now, no one worries about Eden. He is a strong boy and eats with gusto. Even now, two-and-a-half years after his surgery, the sight of their son eating so well fills Tafitasoa and Heriniaina’s hearts to bursting.
Acts of Redemption
Life and love have made Tafitasoa and Heriniaina experts at patience — when to have it and when not to. They have made themselves a resource for other families like theirs, telling them that they don’t need to wait for mission groups or anyone else to get their children the care they need.
Tafitasoa recently met a beggar whose son had a cleft. “As soon as I saw her child, I felt sorry for her. It made me think of my child. I gave her money and asked if she had ever heard of Smile Train”.
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She continued, “We are very grateful for Smile Train for taking care of children like ours. Without Smile Train, we had very little hope for the baby’s future. We hope they will continue to take care of children with clefts”.
You can save a child’s life and make a whole family smile today.