BEING BELOVED

When Beloved, a boy from a small village in Zimbabwe, was ten years old, he suffered a near-fatal injury from a small land mine. Much of the lower half of his face was destroyed and he spent years in dingy local hospitals suffering through multiple and mostly unsuccessful surgeries to try to repair the damage and make his appearance more normal.

In 2007, several years after the accident, American Jennifer Trubenbach who was in the capital city of Harare arranging pro-bono surgeries for the organization Operation of Hope, met him and decided to take on his case. She arranged to bring him to Los Angeles where Beloved received major reconstructive surgery from top physicians greatly improving his appearance.

He recuperated at Trubenbach's home in Orange County and returned to Zimbabwe several months later a young man changed not just in appearance, but psychologically. Beloved went from being a shy, withdrawn teenager to one with more confidence and an vastly improved relationship with the world.

For more about this charitable organization please visit operationofhope.org