B.C. medical charity Operation Rainbow brings smiles, changes lives in Kenya [Video]

With a baby on her back, Zawadi Maringa came in quietly to the Utange Field Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya, in early November.

She had heard about a cleft lip and palate camp offering surgery free of charge by a Canadian medical team called Operation Rainbow Canada.

But the help she needed wasn’t for her child. The 35-year-old had lived her whole life with a deformed face.

“Since I was born, I went to another operation mission with my mom. But my mom ran away because she feared the general anesthetic. I came alone today. I’m happy you welcomed me,” Maringa explained.

Dr. Kimit Rai, who started Operation Rainbow Canada in 1998 and has helped thousands of children in developing countries around the world, decided he and his surgical team could help her.

“Her deformity was very severe and significant, but we were able to put her back together” Rai said.

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