Antoinette Sainfabe of Haiti has been through a lot – a devastating earthquake, homelessness, long-term illness – but a support group convened by The Carter Center helps her keep her head held high.

Antoinette contracted lymphatic filariasis (LF) from the bites of infected mosquitoes. Despite her troubles, the first thing people notice about Sainfabe is not her swollen legs, it’s her signature smile, which she generously shares, especially with the Hope Club, part of the Carter Center-supported Hispaniola Initiative, a joint effort by the governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to eliminate both LF and malaria on their shared home island.

In 1993, the disease caused Antoinette’s legs to swell irreversibly to almost twice their normal size, which makes it hard to walk, to get and keep a job, and to avoid being stigmatized. It’s practically impossible to find shoes that fit, so she, like the other women in the Hope Club, improvises with strips of Velcro to extend her sandal straps.

Antoinette’s advice to other LF sufferers is to resist discouragement, avoid isolation, and see beauty in themselves.

“See me as I am,” she said. “I am living.”

Life is hard in Haiti, with poverty, natural disasters, and troubled political history. Add to the mix a tropical disease that causes permanent disfigurement, and the result can be misery.

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