Why was I inspired: We saw Teertha, a baby of not quite a year old, in the back of the cold store where we crossed the river, returning from the elephant compound in Chitwan, Nepal. Her father ferried the little boats across the water, her mother sold Cokes and candy bars to the tourists. Teertha was trying to eat and crying, the food falling from her mouth because of the cleft in her palate and lip. I felt I was gazing at myself in another form, as I also have this birth defect, which affects about 1 in 1,000 in America and many more children in the third world. Of course, I was fortunate enough to have had many corrective surgeries. Teertha has not yet been so lucky.

What I did: We asked our guide, Randy French, what we could do to help. We all sat down with our Nepali guides, who told us, this was not such a big deal, just a few stitches were needed, but we knew that several expert plastic surgeries would be required. We arranged to give the parents, Dhanka Lal and Messmaya Tamang, some cash so that they could travel to Kathmandu to meet with doctors. Once we returned to the capital city, we researched the options and discovered that foreign surgery teams would be able to provide the medical services needed, and we communicated this information back to the family.

Eventually, Teertha had several surgeries and is able to attend school. She has grown up a lot since we first met in 1996. We visited her and her mother and sister when we returned to Nepal in 1999. We have stayed in touch by phone and letter. Teertha's father eventually went to work at a bakery in Saudi Arabia to support his family, while Messmaya remains in Nepal with their daughters.

Little background information::I am a social worker and my partner Henry is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. We are grateful to have had the chance to connect on a deeper level with this Nepali family and help make a real difference in a little girl's life.

If you wanted to help you could: Be alert to that moment in which you might be privileged to make someone's suffering a little less. On our second trip in 1999, our group came across a European man in a rural hotel who had become disoriented and separated from his traveling companion, just as we were starting our trek. We went to his room to see if we could help. He was convinced that he was about to die, but our assessment suggested that he was sleep deprived and extremely anxious. We were able to reassure him, give him some support and make a plan with his Nepali guide to help him return to Kathmandu. On another occasion on the trail, Randy used his first aid kit to assist a child who had been kicked by a water buffalo. This might seem like a small thing, but to the distressed parents who were far from any medical care, this act of kindness meant everything. Every trip offers us a chance to step outside ourselves and offer some support, care or encouragement to someone, and these moments are the ones we remember the best.