During my last trip to Myanmar, I had the honour to meet a young girl called Mi Tho. Mi Tho is a very special and brave girl who has been through very difficult circumstances that not many young children her age have to go through. Mi Tho is nine years old from the Irrawaddy Delta (southern part of Myanmar affected by Cyclone Nargis in 2008) and was born with a severe facial deformity. Her difficult situation is compounded by the fact that her family lost their whole livelihood as the cyclone destroyed her father’s fishing business, leaving them with nothing. Her desperate situation broke our hearts and so we wanted to make a difference in the life of this young girl and her family. When I sat down with her in Yangon, I was struck by her really sweet spirit and the fact that in spite of her obvious physical disability she loved to play, smile and hug like any other child. She has hope.

Mi Tho requires a very sensitive operation and to date, no such surgery exists in Myanmar. We have flown her out to Taiwan in partnership with NCF Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation. She is receiving the necessary care and attention from surgeons who will require a lot of skill and wisdom to operate on Mi Tho.

She is currently in Taipei, Taiwan with our assistant national director for Myanmar, Peter. Peter is another extraordinary person and one of my heroes. I have very rarely seen someone with such humility and love for the poor of his country. He has made many sacrifices including being absent from his family whom he loves for months on end to help the poor and needy such as Mi Tho. He is one example of compassion that I long to emulate.

Mi Tho and Peter have now been in Taiwan for a few weeks and she has recently had her first operation to repair her cleft palate. The doctors’ report has been positive and they say that Mi Tho is ‘very brave and cooperative’. Please keep this precious child in your thoughts as she continues with further surgery and recovery. You follow her progress at Mi Tho’s Smile.