No matter how hurtful the abuse became, Anas persevered and refused to let it faze him or prevent him from living the life that he wanted.Īnas later admitted that the bullying he endured helped build his character and mold him into the person he is today – someone with the strength and desire to help others.
And when the hurtful comments and ridicule continued, Anas' response to the cruel treatment would be to make a joke, hoping that laughing with his peers would make the bullying stop. When children at school noticed his scars, Anas would say that he’d cut himself shaving in an attempt to lessen the pain he felt. And in their minds, protecting Anas meant sheltering him from the truth.īut even in their efforts to help Anas live the best life possible, his parents couldn’t stop him from enduring years of harmful bullying. So as he grew up, Anas never knew that there were more people just like him, living every day with an untreated cleft condition.Īnas' parents loved their son. Sadly, the results of the surgery didn’t heal properly, and Anas was left with bad scars and unevenness in his lips.įearing that Anas would think his cleft condition was a consequence of God punishing him, Anas’ parents told him that his scars were the result of him falling from the stairs as a child. Hoping to repair their son’s cleft condition, Anas’ parents took him to a clinic (unaffiliated with Operation Smile) where he received his first operation at 2 months old. Neither had ever seen anyone with a cleft before. When their son was born with a unilateral cleft lip, Anas’ parents were scared and shocked. Anas grew up believing that the scar on his lip was the result of a fall he’d had as a child – after 14 years, he learned the truth.