Doctors bring hope to Indonesian girl.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)

Eight-year-old Mawarni Zega, from the village of Hilisebua on Nias Island, Indonesia, is the youngest of 10 children. Mawarni's father is a rubber tree farmer. Mawarni was born with a birth defect called an encephalocele--basically, a hole in her skull that allowed brain membranes to protrude and form a large bulge above her nose. The defect was not only unsightly, but could potentially lead to other, more serious complications such as meningitis. However, there was little that people in her family's economic circumstances could do to help the girl.

On March 28, a massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake destroyed large parts of Nias Island. Almost 1,000 people were killed, and thousands were left homeless. During the aftermath, the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy served as a base of operations for doctors traveling by helicopter to treat earthquake victims. The nonprofit organization Project Hope organized doctors from all over the U.S. to serve one-month volunteer terms on the ship. When doctors came to Mawarni's village, the girl's mother, Adilia, asked them if they could help her daughter.

Because the Mercy lacked facilities to perform such complicated reconstructive surgery, Mawarni's case was turned over to Dr. Donald Van Nimwegen, a Seattle ...