Bela Risu Foundation

We are marking Global Surgery Day with a reminder that surgery is more than precision in the operating room.

It is access, equity, and the belief that healing should never depend on where you were born or what you can afford.

It is teamwork across systems, and borders, working to ensure more people have a fair chance at a fuller life.

Today, we celebrate Ernesto Hosael from Angola and his transformation. Moments like these remind us why access to cleft care matters and how life-changing it can truly be.

Behind every transformation is confidence restored, hope renewed, and a future opened to new possibilities.

We’re so proud to be part of his journey. 💙

Ayaan Abdirashid, a brave 16 year old from Qardho, Somalia, is the third of six children, and the only one born with a cleft lip.

For much of her childhood, that difference kept her in the shadows. While other children went to school, Ayaan stayed behind, tending to her family’s goats, quietly observing a world she didn’t feel part of.

Then, her uncle heard about Bela Risu’s outreach program in Garowe and arranged for her to be seen. When Ayaan was told, the moment felt almost unreal, she remembers, but hope pushed her to go.

Her cleft lip was successfully repaired. And with continued follow-up care, including orthodontic support to restore both function and confidence in her smile, Ayaan began to see herself differently - a brighter smile, more expressive conversations, meeting someone’s eyes without looking away.

Today, Ayaan is stepping into the world with a renewed sense of self, one that reflects not just the care she received, but the courage she carried all along.

Hirsi Warsame, from Galgaduud, Somalia, is starting fresh at 40.

His cleft lip repair is a powerful reminder that it’s never too late, and that awareness efforts are making their way through Somalia, one life at a time.

But it also calls us forward: to keep going, so that in the future, stories like his happen much sooner.

Abdifitah Abdullahi Hersi was the only one in his family of ten born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. Growing up in Shirabu, Ethiopia, his world slowly became smaller because of how others saw him.

When his uncle first met him, he saw a child longing to belong. Hoping to give him a fresh start, he brought Abdifitah to Mogadishu, Somalia, and tried to enroll him in an Islamic school. But even there, he was turned away because his speech was different. Like many children born with a cleft palate, Abdifitah struggled with pronunciation. Sounds that come easily to others were difficult for him, making it harder to be understood.

With each rejection, Abdifitah withdrew further from the world outside, where stigma and discrimination had taken the place of childhood joy.

But fortunately, his story didn’t end there. After receiving cleft lip and palate surgery, Abdifitah is now stepping into the world with confidence, courage, and a renewed sense of possibility.