Kazoa - San Diego, CaliforniaIn early December CCSS office received a phone call from a local Junior High School principal. That day, the school had registered a new student and it was quite obvious to the principal, that the new student needed some medical attention. She was an Asian refugee, that had a severe cleft lip.
Normally we would have to see the patient before making any commitment for their care, but this need was urgent and we immediately said "CCSS will accept full responsibility for her surgery. We made an appointment to see Kazoa and meet with her family."
CCSS encounters many tragic family stories , but this one really tore at our heart strings. Her family was originally from South Vietnam and because of the war, her mother and four siblings fled Vietnam to live in a neighboring country, while her father was inducted into their Army. Shortly after this, the military authorities apparently felt he might defect to the enemy, and he was taken into the woods and shot.
After that, her mother and siblings escaped in a small boat. While they were at sea they were attacked by pirates who robbed, beat and molested them before leaving them for dead. Somehow they were picked up by a U.S. rescue vessel and brought to the United States. After staying in an eastern refugee camp, friends and relatives brought them to San Diego.
The mother was encouraged, to take her oldest daughter Kazoa to a doctor, and
he would begin treatment for her deformity. But the mother was afraid, that if
she ran up a large bill, that she could not pay, she and the children would be
deported. Only at the insistence of neighbors, did the mother agree to allow
Kazoa to go to school.
Following the Principal's call, to our office CCSS set in action, a special plan for Kazoa, one that would complete her plastic surgery operation before Christmas. That would require CCSS to not wait for the next schedule clinic, but make a special appeal for help, to the local doctors who work with CCSS. Thankfully, through the generosity of Dr. Jonathan Jones who provided his services free of charge, and the money that was available from CCSS's "Emergency Fund" Kazoa's dream came true. That Christmas, we saw Kazoa look in a mirror at her new face and smile, to us, that was worth all the special efforts.
The principal wrote a letter to CCSS saying, "...Your outreach has touched us all in a very special way, none of us will be the same."
