I met an amazing U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, Sgt. Winston Fiore, a few weeks back and his story is amazing because he is on a 5,000-mile trek across Southeast Asia to raise awareness (and funds) for corrective facial surgery on children, young adults and even adults in the developing world.
Sgt. Fiore’s trek is taking him through countries such as Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand and Laos. He has never been to this part of the world. This trek was an idea born in 2007 in Senegal where he was stationed for 3 weeks. He got the idea of dedicating a year off from military service to see parts of the world he still hadn’t seen and do this on foot. And walk for a cause.
Back in New York, he began searching for a cause. His father sent him a newspaper clipping of Dr. Jeff Williams who had a comfortable lifestyle as a plastic surgeon but who would volunteer 1-2 weeks in a year with volunteer groups. Dr. Williams had grown disappointed with some of these volunteer groups so he decided to found International Children’s Surgical Foundation (ICSF) in 2005. Sgt. Fiore took a closer look at ICSF and decided to work with Dr. Williams.
His cause became children with cleft palates.