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The Gift Of Wholeness

In Thursday's Heroes Among Us with People magazine, meet a woman who single-handedly changed the lives of 50 children around the world. Though she started with no funding and no political connections, that didn't stop her from providing hope and healing. The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith reports.



It started 10 years ago with a simple letter, a plea for help from a boy in Bosnia.

The letter read: "I am asking all God and merciful people to help me get prosthetic limbs."

"He had stepped on a land mine and had lost both arms and a leg," says Elissa Montanti. "I looked at this and said to myself, 'My god, what can I do?'

"Kenan came and, while he lived with me for four months, he received state-of-the-art prosthetics and rehabilitation," Montanti says. "And Kenan went back with two new arms and a leg and a new life."

"She gave me my life back," Kenan Malkic says. "She gave me my life back."

Now a 23-year-old college student, Malkic lives with Montanti while he attends school in the United States.

"I can walk, I can get myself dressed. I can pretty much be on my own without anybody's help," Malkic says. "I can do everything. I'm living my life as if my accident didn't happen."

Through helping Malkic, Montanti realized she had found her life's purpose.

"I knew the pain that he went through and that there were so many other children similar to him," she says. "And so I started my mission."

It's called the Global Medical Relief Fund. Its aim is to reach kids like Kenan, maimed by war or natural disaster, wherever they are in the world. Two years ago, Montanti visited hospitals in Iraq and was stunned by what she saw.

"Loss of limbs, faces, wounds open," she says. "There were the parents sleeping on the floor next to them. People, they were all coming to me asking me can you help: can you help my child, my nephew, my cousin, my whatever. These children are lost if nobody steps in."

Eight Iraqi children joined her growing list, nearly 50 children in all. Back in the United States, the kids get free prosthetics at Shriner's Hospital in Philadelphia. Along with physical therapy, there are recreational activities. These children are not just given limbs, they are given a future.

"They went through this horrible thing and then they come here and it's wonderful," Malkic says. "It's wonderful to see the transformation they go through."

During their stay they live in a former orphanage on Staten Island. When Montanti was given the space it was cold and sterile, so she called upon Home Depot and Ikea to refurbish it. The result was a comfortable home filled with toys and laughter.

"When they come off the plane, their head is down, they don't talk, they're not interested in anything," Malkic says. "By the time they leave, they're like, wow, what a difference. They're happy. I mean, they play, they sing. It's like nothing happened to them."

But the departures are heartbreaking. Yearly reunions are anxiously anticipated. Each child returns to have the prosthetics refitted every year until they turn 21.

"I had toys donated," Montanti says. The fund relies on donations, and Montanti says she barely gets by, at times, reaching into her own pocket to pay the bills.

"Today I have at least 50 children waiting to come," she says. "It's a big struggle. And at times, I can't even pay the phone bill. But I keep going, and I keep my faith because I know it's the right thing and the only thing to do."

A simple letter reached something deep inside Montanti, a feeling that turned into a commitment.

"You're talking about changing these lives forever," she says. "I don't have my own children, but I have 50 (laughs) all over the world, and I love each and every one of them."

The Global Medical Relief Fund relies entirely on private and corporate donations.

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