Honduran teen thriving thanks to Birmingham Baptists

When Rony Javier Cruz-Oviedo arrived in America three years ago, the 10-year-old didn’t know how to hold a pencil, was illiterate and could barely walk.
   
Now, the 13-year-old boy from Honduras is thriving. He recently completed fourth grade and after four successful surgeries, is able to participate in sports.
   
In the summer of 2000, doctors at Birmingham’s Medical Center East performed the first surgery to correct Rony’s clubfeet. The operation was performed free of charge and his hospitalization was also free.
   
Since that time, Rony has been living with Efrain Horta and his family. Horta is the former director of language missions with Birmingham Baptist Association, and met Rony on a medical missions trip to Honduras. Horta and his wife, Gisella, have become Rony’s legal guardians.
   
“Physically, he is doing much better,” Horta said. “He still needs more surgery to correct his feet, and we’re waiting because he needs to heal completely from previous surgery and his bone must grow more.”
Rony is from an isolated and poverty-stricken section of Honduras, and because of his physical disability he was unable to attend school there or play with other children.
   
“School was too far away in Honduras,” Rony said. “I got tired easily.”
   
Now Rony says he enjoys attending Roebuck Park Christian School and science is his favorite subject.
   
“He has progressed very well in school,” Horta said.
   
Horta said Dr. John Morris, the surgeon who operated on Rony, asked the boy what one thing he would like to have the most.
   
“Rony told him that the thing he would most like to have would be a pair of tennis shoes,” Horta said. “He said he wanted them because he could use them — this is something he had never had before because of his feet.”
    
These days, Rony spends a lot of time in tennis shoes, although he requires orthotics.
“I can move fast, and I’m good at basketball,” he said. “I feel really good but sometimes my feet hurt when it rains.” Horta first met Rony in 1998 at a medical missions clinic in Honduras.
 
“I was an interpreter in a clinic and Rony came to see us,” he said. “The doctor told him he needed surgery but it couldn’t be done there.”
    
Once Horta returned to the United States, he showed pictures of Rony’s feet to some doctors. “Dr. Morris said he would do everything he could to help him if I could get the boy here,” Horta said. “I contacted the pastor there, sent papers to his mother allowing him to come, and after a year and a half process he came to the United States alone.”
    
Rony, who has not returned home since his arrival, said he enjoys living in America.
   
“I like basketball, cars and movies,” he said. “I would like to stay here.”
Due to strict immigration laws, Horta said Rony might not be able to re-enter the United States if he were to return to Honduras.
    
“He needs to stay until the doctor can do more surgery,” Horta said.