Yannick Kabuguza, right, poses for a photo with Dr. Patricia A. Fox, a plastic surgeon who repaired of his damaged ear, left, on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, during a press conference at the McClellan Street Health Center in Schenectady, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Watch the 2-minute breathtaking story of Yannick on Spectrum news.

A Genocide survivor, Yannick Kabuguza, was 4 years old when machete-wielding  Hutu extremists invaded his home in Kigali and killed everyone he loved — his mom, dad, siblings, uncles, aunties and grandma. He was struck with a machete, and they left him, thought he was dead,” said plastic surgeon Patricia Fox. Kabuguza survived — but lived most of his young life with a deformity to his left ear.

After more than two decades, he finally got surgery to repair the damage done to his face and head during the genocide. A Schenectady doctor did the work free of charge.

Dr. Fox fixed Yannick’s ear which had been separated in the attack.“In that culture that was a significant stigmata that meant he was a genocide victim, not different from the tattoos that the people who came from Auschwitz had,” Fox said.

A new Jersey-based non profit , ‘Where Angels Play Foundation’ , traveled to Rwanda in 2001 to build playgrounds, and when they heard Yannick’s story, they began fundraising to cover his travel costs to the U.S. Bill Lavin is the founder of ‘Where Angels Play’. “To imagine that he’s here, we feel like we won the Super bowl,” Lavin said.

Source:  Spectrum News & Times Union.