Sumitra's Story
- [To protect the identity of the children, names and photographs have been changed]
When the social worker brought Sumitra from an upcountry Government hospital we knew why her parents had abandoned her at birth. She had a cleft lip and a cleft palate, she could not suck from a bottle and we had to feed her milk drop by drop, by hand.
Over one and a half years with us she sailed through two surgeries like a
heroine. Today she lives near Hamburg, a happy little girl going to
kindergarten, with doting German parents and grandparents. She speaks fluent
German and there is no trace of her old disability except a faint scar over her
upper lip.