Connecting the Link between Human trafficking and Craniofacial birth defects
One of the first cleft camps for Love Without Reason took place in Bangalore, India. Our founders, Santhosh and Susan, watched as fifteen different individuals entered the screening process. One of them was a thirty-year-old young woman who did not have a cleft lip or palate. She was born with scar tissue over her TMJ joints. She could not open her mouth more than a few millimeters. She was temporarily cleared for surgery. However, when her lab results came back, she was found to be HIV positive. She needed to go for treatment and could not have surgery at this time.
The Love Without Reason staff reached out to her to learn more of her story. She had been exploited and abused from her youth. She did not complete her education and did not have a job. She did not have a family to care for her. She was sold and used, all because she was born with a different face.
If Love Without Reason had been there thirty years ago, her life would have been different. Surgery would have changed the course of her life. Because the health care resources were not available or affordable for her, she fell into a vulnerable lifestyle that made her easy prey for human traffickers.
If our team finds the patients first and can make them aware of this evil crime and provide transformative facial surgery, their life and their entire community can take on a different path – a path to success and fulfillment.
