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24
WINTER
2011
It takes some people years, if at all, to find
out their mission in life.
Usama Hamdan
’71
knew at the age of 15 while at IC. His
heavy involvement in the social service
club at the school led him to one question.
“Why do I exist?” He said. “What am
I doing here? Well, I felt quite early on
that I was here to help others. But I didn’t
know how yet.”
But he soon would. In 1984 he moved to
Massachusetts (where he still resides) and
specialized in Otolaryngology and Facial
Plastic Surgery. In 1987, he joined a vol-
unteer group headed to Latin America to
operate on children and adults born with
cleft lip and palate defects. What he saw
was shocking. With a high incidence of
disfigurements and little access to medical
care, people in remote villages could do
little with their birth defects. Many were
shunned. Some were locked up out of
shame. Others were beaten up. Adults
and children were outcasts. Newborns
were shirked.
Hamdan and the other doctors set to
work. As each disfigurement was turned
into normal facial features, a life was
renewed. Even Hamdan himself couldn’t
get over the change in his patients.
He knew then that he had found what
he’s been always looking for.
“It’s amazing the impact that you can
have on their lives,” he said. “It is not by
accident that I can do this.This was my
chance to give back. “
In 1990, he set up his own foundation
made up of a team of doctors, nurses and
administrators. Every year, the Global
Smile Foundation team - made up of
between 20 and 24 volunteers - goes on
five ‘missions’ to various countries and
performs cleft repair operations. It takes
about five months of coordination - with
local NGOs and local doctors who are
prescreening patients - to set up
just one mission. Over 25
huge boxes are
packed up
every time
with everything the team could
possibly need from syringes
to anesthesia machines. Each
mission lasts anywhere between
seven to ten days. Up to 60
patients per mission undergo
operations.The trip is mostly
funded by the team members
themselves though donors and
sponsors are always welcome.
“We all believe that we are
blessed with a talent that we need
to share with others,” said Ham-
dan. “We believe that it is our
duty to give back to humanity.”
But their work doesn’t stop
there as the team spends a
considerable amount of time
empowering local doctors to
continue with the operations
through hands-on training and
educational conferences. Sub-
sequent missions follow-up on
patients (up to 20 years later)
providing them with dental care, speech
therapy, and nutritional analysis.
The high number of patients is over-
whelming. As the word spreads, desperate
villagers walk for days to reach Hamdan
and his team. If deemed operable, no one
is turned away.
The Global Smile Foundation volunteers
have so far operated in Central and South
America, Asia, Africa, the Indian sub-
continent and Eastern Europe. Despite
their many missions, thousands of cases
still await them.The pace was sometimes
slowed down by the use of only one
anesthesia machine.Then while in India a
few years ago, the team found themselves
facing 48 operations that had to be done
within one week. It was an impossible task.
Someone hit upon the idea of using local
anesthesia to operate on patients older
than 12 years.The patients’ eagerness to
undergo surgery, coupled with the safe
and pain-free experience allowed the
team to efficiently go through 42
operations during a one week stay.The
patients were also able to go home
shortly after surgery.
After his operation, one shunned man
in his 50s was finally able to leave
home. And when he did, he met a
woman and married her. Post-surgery
children, previously hidden away, emerged
from their homes to attend schools. One
man, who was given a huge amount of
dowry to marry a woman with a severe
cleft lip, told Hamdan after the surgery:
“I’ve always loved her but now I see her as
a beautiful woman.”
Hamdan tells their stories vividly when
he visited IC’s alumni office during the
summer with his wife and two college-age
children (his wife and two children are
part of the team. His wife is an anesthesi-
ologist, his daughter is a mission coordina-
tor, and his son is a logistics coordinator).
Deploring attention and credit, he keeps
his role at a modest level (in fact, it was a
bit of a battle to get this interview!).
“What we do is such a moving experi-
ence,” he said. “You see the difference that
you are making in people’s lives. “
His advice to others?
“Give back,” he said. “It doesn’t have to
be money. It’s the little things that count.
Did you hold that door for the older lady?
Did you smile at someone? Did you boost
someone’s morale? Did you give someone
a nice compliment? Life is wonderful. Let
the smallest things count.”
For more information or donations to the Glob-
al Smile Foundation go to: www.gsmile.org
Global Smile Foundation