Gifts of songs and surgery

For the past year, Gladys Avako has sung and danced her heart out for others.

The 9-year-old member of the African Children's Choir traveled to a dozen Midwestern states and performed at scores of churches as part of the choir's most recent production. Recently, she has spent countless hours in rehearsal for its upcoming Christmas concert with the Cincinnati Symphony.

But two weeks ago, this intensely shy Ugandan native with a big, wide smile got a gift in return. A Duke University orthopedic surgeon removed an extra pinkie from each hand. In a common genetic fluke, Gladys was born with what doctors call post-axial polydactyly, or extra fingers.

The gift was part of an exchange rooted in the joyful sounds of boys and girls who have nothing except a spark of life and a message of hope that inspire others to action.

When members of King's Park International Church in Durham first heard the choir a few years ago, they knew they had to do something for the children. Two years ago, the congregation provided the celebrated choir with a permanent home away from home - a wood-frame house off a rural road in Chatham County. There, the choir members rest between performances instead of being divided among host families.

Now some Duke University doctors and nurses have agreed to provide free medical and dental checkups for the choir. The group, called Duke in Uganda, is made up of about 60 doctors and nurses who have traveled to Uganda to donate used medical equipment and offer training to the staff of the New Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda's capital.

Gladys' surgery was the first instance in which Duke doctors have operated on a child from the choir.

"There's something very magical about the kids," said Brooke Gleason, who raises money for the Duke in Uganda project. "They have hope and faith and a real sense of being happy with what they have. That's really contagious."

Gladys, who was born into poverty in northern Uganda, would never have been able to afford the surgery back home. Outside the choir, she faced a life of ostracism and humiliation with her extra fingers, which had no functional use because they had no joints.

Fortunately, Gladys could sing and dance, and, after a rigorous audition, she was accepted into the choir, which provides children with free school tuition. For the 88-pound, 4-foot-11-inch girl, the choir proved a refuge. Fellow choir members, many of whom are orphans, never made fun of her because of her extra fingers, Gladys said, and they allowed her to be who she is today.

Still, it was clear to Dr. Prerana Patel, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Duke who operated on Gladys, that she wanted the extra pinkies gone.

"I would not have put her through the surgery unless she really wanted it," Patel said. "I could tell it meant something to her."

Had Gladys been born in the United States, doctors would most likely have removed the extra fingers before her first birthday. But keeping them did not impair Gladys developmentally, Patel said.

In fact, she loves to draw and, like most kids, to stay active. Her favorite experiences during her yearlong stay in the U.S. have been going to the Kalahari Water Park in Sandusky, Ohio, and riding the roller coaster at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville.

That, and eating hamburgers and spaghetti.

Most of all, though, Gladys wanted to be like other kids. Now she is. Although she will always have scars at the edge of her hands, in time they will be barely visible.

Last week, Gladys went to rehearsal alongside 20 other 8- to-12-year-old choir members. They spent nearly two hours learning a song called "Gift for a King." Their repertoire also includes many better-known Christmas classics, such as "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bells."

In the dining hall, chaperones taped up large sheets of paper with the lyrics to many of the carols that the choir must commit to memory before performances in Cincinnati Dec. 11-13.

A few days later, the choir will return to Uganda, where the children will resume their schooling, paid for by the choir whose American performances raise money for the children's education through college. Later in December, another set of children from Africa will take their place.

And with them, another set of giving opportunities.

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