By Kristen Dahlgren and Erica Ayisi, NBC News

What started out as a modest fundraising event held in a Santa Barbara, Calif., parking lot has turned into a life-changing moment for Jennifer Vasilakos, thanks to a chance meeting with Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner. 

It all began in a parking lot in July of last year. Vasilakos, 42, set up a table near her hometown's annual Santa Barbara French Festival to raise money for stem cell treatment, displaying signs and flyers that explained her cause. She also brought a small moneybox to stash cash made from parking cars for festival-goers.

Equipped with sunglasses, a water bottle and coffee, Vasilakos was prepared to spend the day raising awareness and telling people her personal story – that she was diagnosed with acute renal failure in 2011 and had received dialysis three times a day, three times a week. It was a grueling regimen that she would endure the rest of her life. A kidney transplant wasn’t an option; she had been rejected as a candidate because of a previous bout with cancer.

Vasilakos, a Reiki teacher and herbalist, decided her only option was to save up for stem cell treatment – a costly procedure that is not performed in the United States.

But as the day wore on, her moneybox largely remained empty. The festival, she said, “was completely dead.”

That's when a lost driver in a “small little car” drove up, looking for directions. Jennifer chatted him up.

Louis Lanzano / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ty Warner, Beanie Baby creator and chief executive of Ty Inc., arrives at the Toy Fair to sign

“The man rolls down the window, has a piece of paper in his hand and he’s looking for a local business,” she recalled. “I provide him instructions and because I am fundraising that day to get my stem cell treatment, I hand him my flyer.”

The man gave her $50.

About an hour later, the driver returned, looked her in the eye and asked if she was the woman in the flyer raising money for stem cell treatment. She confirmed that she was.

Courtesy of Jennifer Vasilakos

Jennifer Vasilakos received this note from Ty Warner, accompanied by a check for $20,000. It reads: "Dear Jennifer, Someone up there loves you because I was guided to meet you on Saturday. I never lose my way, but fate had me lost and ask you for direction. The rest of the story I hope will be a wonderful new life for you. God bless you Jennifer. Ty."

The man replied, “I’m Ty Warner, and I’d like to help you with this and take care of it for you.”

Yes, that Ty Warner – of Ty Inc., the billionaire brain behind the Beanie Babies collectibles craze. Vasilakos said she recognized his name but had no idea he would ultimately make a huge donation.

“I was hoping to raise a few hundred dollars that day by the generosity of my community for the stem cell treatment that I needed to get,” she said. “I had no idea I would meet Ty Warner that day.”

On her blog, Vasilakos wrote: “I listened as he repeated over and over that he was going to help me. That my fundraising was done.  That I didn’t need to worry any longer. He said he would send a check after he returned to his offices during the week.”

Several days after they met, Vasilakos received a $20,000 check from Warner along with a handwritten note. She said she hopes it “was a little birdy in his ear that said, ‘You should help this woman.’”

Vasilakos had the stem cell treatment last year in Trinidad. 

Warner, according to a prepared statement, was enlightened by their chance encounter.

"After I serendipitously met Jennifer, I further educated myself on her stem cell needs. I was shocked that this particular type of treatment wasn't available to her in the U.S.," Warner said. "My hope is that we can bring this lifesaving treatment to the forefront so that it can become more readily available and provide alternatives for people like Jennifer."

Vasilakos underwent the treatment in September 2012 and now, after months of recovery, she says she feels great. 

"The day the length of my dialysis treatment was reduced to two and half hours per treatment was an exciting day. I regained three hours of freedom per month! My blood pressure has dropped down to normal with lower and lower levels of medication," she wrote recently on her blog. "The biggest change is how amazing I feel, and I am brimming with energy. My immune system has become resilient, and I can feel the difference in my body." 

Updated at 10:40 a.m. ET: The remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were exhumed from his grave on Tuesday -- eight years after his death at age 75 — as part of an investigation into allegations that he was poisoned, according to official Palestinian radio. 

Arafat's body was uncovered in its grave and samples were removed without having to lift the corpse from the ground. As a result, a planned reburial ceremony with full military honors was called off.

The tomb was resealed in hours and wreaths were placed by Palestinian leaders including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

"The state of the body was exactly what you would expect to find for someone who has been buried for eight years. There was nothing out of the ordinary," Health Minister Hani Abdeen told a news conference.

A Palestinian medical team took samples and gave them to Swiss, French and Russian experts who flew in for the exhumation and who will examine them in their home countries, the officials said. Samples were taken earlier from Arafat's bedroom, office and personal belongings, they said.

Arafat case: 'Proof' still might elude Palestinians

French judges opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death in August after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of radioactive polonium on his clothing.

Slideshow: Arafat, in images

AP

See key moments and memorable scenes from Yasser Arafat's life.

Launch slideshow

Jordanian doctor Abdullah al Bashir, head of the Palestinian medical committee, said about 20 samples were taken and analysis would take at least three months.

"In order to do these analyses, to check, cross-check and double cross-check, it will take several months and I don't think we'll have anything tangible available before March or April next year," said Darcy Christen, spokesman for Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland that carried out tests on Arafat's clothes.

Rumors of foul play have long surrounded the sudden demise of Arafat, a champion of Palestinian statehood from the time he was 19, and eventually, the democratically elected president of the Palestinian Authority.

Arafat was revered by many Palestinians and Arabs as a freedom fighter and reviled by many Israelis and its allies as a terrorist for his relentless fight for Palestinian self-determination. But he also had enemies and rivals within the Arab and Palestinian political circles.

He died in November 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill. The rapid deterioration of his health and death baffled doctors who were trying to treat him in France, and an autopsy was never performed at the request of his widow, Suha.

'A painful necessity'
While the immediate cause of death was a stroke, the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear, leading to persistent speculation in the Arab world that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied such allegations.

Poisoning as a cause of death gained currency after a Swiss institute said it had found high levels of radioactive polonium on Arafat's clothing, which was supplied by Suha, prompting the French to open a formal murder inquiry.

Polonium was the substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Litvenenko was a Russian ex-spy who later became a relentless critic of the Kremlin.

"It is a painful necessity" to exhume the body of Arafat, said Tawfiq al-Tirawi, who is in charge of the Palestinian committee overseeing the investigation, speaking to reporters in Ramallah on Saturday.

Tirawi said the Palestinians had "evidence which suggests Arafat was assassinated by Israelis," Reuters reported.

The exhumation might not resolve the mystery. Polonium-210 decomposes rapidly, and some experts say it is not clear whether any remaining samples will be sufficient for testing. 

NBC's Kari Huus, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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CHICHIGALPA, Nicaragua – You won’t see a road sign pointing to “La Isla de Viudas,” or “The Island of Widows,” as it’s not the community’s official name. It’s a nickname born from a horrific body count. 

In the past 10 years, it’s believed that hundreds, if not thousands, of residents of Chichigalpa — mostly male sugarcane workers — have died from chronic kidney disease, or CKD. That in a city of nearly 60,000, roughly the size of Ames, Iowa. 

The mysterious and hidden epidemic, first highlighted by the Center for Public Integrity, has claimed thousands more lives across Central America. In El Salvador and Nicaragua alone, the number of men dying from the excruciatingly painful disease has risen five-fold in the last two decades. High rates of CKD also have been found in rural villages in India and among the rice paddies of Sri Lanka.

Sacorro Mendez Flores, who lives in the “La Isla” district of Chichigalpa, remembers when her son first fell ill. Jorge Luis Silva didn’t look sick at first, but inside he was dying. His kidneys struggled to filter waste from his body, to no avail. Five months ago, Flores buried him. 

“The same thing happened to my husband,” she said. “They both died the same.”

Sacorro Mendez-Flores, surrounded by her grandchildren, holds a family photo. The resident of Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, lost both her son and husband to chronic kidney disease.

Researchers are searching for answers about why this disease is ravaging not only the bodies of its victims, but the communities they leave behind. 

The illness spreads
More than 20 million Americans aged 20 and older have chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In developed countries like the U.S., CKD often goes hand in hand with obesity, diabetes and hypertension. With treatment, including dialysis and kidney transplants, many with the disease survive. 

The CKD plaguing parts of Central America, however, is something scientists have never seen before.

“It affects people who don't have diabetes or hypertension, which are the usual risk factors for chronic kidney disease,” said Sasha Chavkin, a CPI reporter who has covered the mysterious epidemic for several years. “No one can figure out what it is that's making all these people sick.”

Slideshow: Mysterious malady fells sugarcane workers

Estbean Felix / AP

Workers in Central American sugarcane fields are dying of chronic kidney disease at an astonishing rate and experts are unable to say why.

Launch slideshow

“It comes at great social, economic and humanitarian cost,” said Dr. Daniel R. Brooks, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Health who is leading a research team looking for the cause of the epidemic. “These are working-age people who are being struck down, and whole communities are really hurt and devastated by this disease.” 

And with little or no access to the life-saving treatments available in the developed world, a CKD diagnosis is often tantamount to a death sentence. 

Related stories

In Nicaraguan sugarcane community, workers stare death in the face

Chronic kidney disease: 'Silent killer' may have multiple triggers

“Where we stand right now is that ultimately this disease is not treatable in this community,” said Nate Raines, a researcher with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Global Health program, which is collaborating with two organizations in Nicaragua on research independent from the Boston University group. “What we need to do is find the cause. That's the only way to really help the health situation.” 

Many in Chichigalpa believe that the root of the disease lies in chemicals sprayed in the sugarcane fields while men are working, or seeping into the water supply. A spokesperson from the sugar industry says the chemicals used are standard fertilizer and are not used to excess.  

Science, so far, points to a more complicated answer. 

'Markers' of kidney damage found
The research team from the Boston University has linked the disease in Central America to strenuous labor, dehydration and environmental conditions in which chemicals may play a role. That theory was supported by the group’s most recent study, which found “markers” of kidney damage in adolescents as young as 12 in affected communities. 

Thousands of miles away, research in Sri Lanka’s affected communities also indicates chemicals may play a key role in the illness devastating communities there.

As reported last month by the Center for Public Integrity, the country’s health ministry and World Health Organization announced in June that a years-long study had identified chemicals thought to be an essential cause of the disease: cadmium and arsenic. Both are heavy metals found in fertilizers and pesticides that can cause an array of health effects, including the type of kidney damage ravaging communities in Sri Lanka and Nicaragua.

While most of those tested had lower levels of the toxic elements than officially designated as dangerous by the United Nations, researchers believe that long-term exposure, likely through the food chain, may explain the high incidence of CDK. 

The findings, due to be officially released in October, represent a potential breakthrough in the research about CDK worldwide, including the epidemic in Nicaragua. 

Researchers in Central America have not pinpointed a chemical cause. But the new research on adolescents indicates the kidneys of those going into the fields may already be damaged, making the long days and repeated dehydration in the fields potentially deadly. 

Some experts also suggest that sugarcane workers may also unwittingly be harming themselves as they struggle to stay hydrated while cutting up to 11 tons of cane a day by hand.

For a refreshing pick-me-up, they occasionally slice a stalk of cane, peeling back its “bark” and sticking it in their mouths, where it produces a sweet sugary liquid. 

But investigators now wonder: Could that constant flow of sucrose, combined with 90-plus degree temperatures and severe daily dehydration, be a deadly cocktail that slowly brings on CKD? 

“We believe high amounts of sugar solutions may not cause much kidney damage,” said Dr. Richard Johnson, head of the division of renal disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado, Denver. “But under certain circumstances, such as dehydration, we’re concerned the sugar may actually be toxic in causing damage to the kidneys.”

The sugar link
Whether or not sugar consumption plays a direct role in causing the Central American form of CKD, activists say it is a thread that connects the disease to its northern cousin.

In the U.S., rampant sugar consumption – Americans eat an average of 22.2 teaspoons of sugar per day according to the American Heart Association—drives many of the diseases linked to CKD, including diabetes and hypertension. 

And with recent steep increases in the price and demand for sugar, more people are working longer hours in the sugarcane fields of Central America. In 2011, the U.S. imported 330,000 metric tons of raw sugar from Central America, or nearly one-quarter of total raw sugar imports that year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

“Not only is the production of sugar killing people, but the consumption of it is killing people,” said Jason Glaser of La Isla Foundation, a nonprofit group he founded to focus attention on the epidemic and fund research that he hopes will solve the mystery. “It's bad for you and it's bad for workers.” 

The sugar industry, however, rejects suggestions that it is causing the epidemic of CKD among workers at its mills and plantations.

“We are not responsible for it,” said Mario Amador, a spokesman for the sugarcane industry. “We’re working to find a solution.”

He also blames the workers themselves, saying they drink too much alcohol. “It’s part of our culture,” Amador said. “It’s part of the things we do in our country. Poor people do it a lot.” 

Amador also speculated that active volcanoes in the region could have contaminated the water supply. But he admits he does not know why so many have died from CKD.

No matter what the research finds, Central America is unlikely to curb its cane production anytime soon. The world market for sugar is strong, and the industry receives direct help from abroad. 

The International Finance Corp., the private-sector arm of the World Bank, has provided loans of more than $100 million to promote production and biofuel in Nicaragua in recent years. Though the loans went to two plantations whose workers have been heavily affected by kidney disease, they were approved without formal consideration of the disease because the IFC did not find a link between the cane fields and CKD, according to the Associated Press. 

After workers complained about the loans, the IFC helped to negotiate an $800,000 donation to sponsor the ongoing Boston University study, the Center for Public Integrity reported. The money was provided by Nicaragua Sugar Estates Limited, a major sugar producer in the west of the country, part of more than $4 million it has committed toward research and community development in recent years.

Waiting to die
But for many in Chichigalpa, the results of the research – whatever they may be – will come too late. 

Like most of the men in this community, Maximiliano Lopez, spent years in the fields cutting sugarcane. He began at 5 a.m., when the air was cool, and continued to work as the sun beat down, sometimes logging 14 hours a day. Then he was informed he had CKD.

Even after his diagnosis, which bans him from working in the fields or at the mill, the muscular 32-year-old said he used a friend’s identification to return to cutting cane. Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, he explained, and many workers continue to work the harvest after being diagnosed with kidney disease because it is the only work they can find. 

“A lot of people do it out of necessity,” Lopez said. “They have a big family and they're the head of the household, so even if they're sick, you have to find work to support your family.” 

But, as Lopez and other cane workers eventually discovered, short-term survival may mean leaving behind the families that they labored so mightily to support.

“I began working there to earn a living and instead I earned death,” he said. “I’m just waiting for the day to come.” 

More from Open Channel:

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Tens of thousands of angry Greek protesters filled the streets of Athens on Tuesday to greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who offered sympathy but no promise of further aid on her first visit since the euro crisis erupted three years ago.

As police fired tear gas and stun grenades to halt angry crowds chanting anti-austerity slogans and waving swastika flags, Merkel's host, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, welcomed her as a "friend."

Blamed by many Greeks for imposing draconian budget cuts in exchange for aid, Merkel reaffirmed Berlin's commitment to keep the debt-crippled Greek state inside Europe's single currency.

"I have come here today in full knowledge that the period Greece is living through right now is an extremely difficult one for the Greeks and many people are suffering," Merkel said during a joint news conference with Samaras just a few hundred yards from the mayhem on Syntagma Square, outside parliament.

"Precisely for that reason I want to say that much of the path is already behind us," she added, offering a public display of support to Samaras's three-month-old government on her first visit to Greece since 2007.

Reuters

Police try to disperse protesters reacting to the visit of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in Athens on Oct. 9.

She tried to reassure her hosts that their reforms would eventually pay off, but also made clear that Greece, which has seen its unemployment rate surge to nearly 25 percent and economic output shrink by a fifth, would not solve its problems overnight.

Angela Merkel greeted warmly by prime minister, but not by Greeks

Samaras promised to implement economic reforms necessary to restore confidence: "The Greek people are bleeding but are determined to stay in the euro," he said.

"All of those who made bets that Greece would fail... will lose," Samaras added, according to Spiegel.

On the other side of the parliament building, tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a ban and gathered to voice their displeasure with the German leader, whom many blame for forcing painful cuts on Greece in exchange for two European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout packages worth more than 200 billion euros ($260 billion).

Greek police fired teargas and stun grenades when protesters tried to break through a barrier to reach the cordoned-off area where Merkel and Samaras were meeting. Some demonstrators pelted police with rocks, bottles, paint bombs and sticks.

Four people dressed in World War II-era German military uniforms and riding on a small jeep, waved black-white-and-red swastika flags and stuck their hands out in the Hitler salute. Some protesters carrying banners bearing slogans such as, "No to the Fourth Reich," the BBC reported.  

Other banners read "Merkel out, Greece is not your colony" and "This is not a European Union, it's slavery."

Reuters

Police try to disperse protesters reacting to the visit of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in Athens on Oct. 9.

Some 6,000 police officers were deployed, including anti-terrorist units and rooftop snipers, to provide security during the six-hour visit. German sites in the Greek capital, including the embassy and the Goethe Institute, were under special protection. This security operation was one of Athens' biggest in a decade, the BBC reported.

Among the peaceful protesters, teacher Christina Vassilopoulou, 37, told AFP that despite having a doctorate, she only makes 900 euros (about $1,160) a month.

"We have children that go hungry and most of the parents are unemployed," she told the AFP news agency, the BBC said.

Constantine Spiliagopoulos, a lawyer who was also taking part in the protests said Merkel was "one of the main reasons that Greece's low income and the working classes of Greece are under attack," according to the BBC.

"That is why we must make our presence felt, we must shout against these polices and show that we will do everything so that they do not continue," she added.

Constantinos Siathas was more hopeful, telling The Associated Press: "I think most people, at least those who think and don't act based on feelings or utopian ideas, are pleased and are expecting a lot from Mrs. Merkel's visit."

Yiannis Bournos, a spokesperson for the leftist Syriza party, criticized Merkel's visit, telling the BBC that Greeks were "frustrated and enraged because they clearly understand that Mrs. Merkel's visit is just a theater play for the political support of a collapsing coalition."

Aid money "urgently needed"
After steering clear of Greece for the past five years, Merkel decided to visit now for several reasons.

She was keen to show support for Samaras, a fellow conservative, as he struggles to impose more cuts on a society fraying at the edges after five years of recession.

Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

Demonstrators, dressed as Nazis, wave a swastika flag as they ride in an open-top car in Syntagma Square in Athens to protest against the visit of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Oct. 9, 2012.

With a year to go until Germany holds a parliamentary election, Merkel also hoped to neutralize opposition criticism at home that she has neglected Greece and contributed to its woes by insisting on crushing budget cuts.

After her government flirted earlier this year with the idea of allowing Greece to exit the eurozone, she now appears determined to keep it in, at least until the German election is out of the way.

IMF: Global economic slowdown is getting worse, US must avoid 'fiscal cliff'

Greece is in talks with its "troika" of lenders - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - on the next tranche of a 130 billion euro ($170 billion) loan package, its second bailout since 2010.

Without the 31.5 billion euro tranche, Greece says it will run out of money by the end of November.

The European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, said Tuesday that Greece's creditors would not allow the country to go bankrupt, according to the German publication Spiegel. As European Union finance ministers met on Tuesday, Rehn said the next aid package would be granted "at the latest by November."

Merkel said the aid payment was "urgently needed" but stopped short of promising that the funds would flow.

"The troika report will come when it is ready. Being thorough is more important than being quick," Merkel said.

"We are working hard on this, but we must resolve all the problems," she added. "I think we'll see light at the end of the tunnel."

"This is an effort that should be seen through, because otherwise it would make the circumstances even more dramatic later on," she added, according to Spiegel.

Ties between Germany and Greece run deep. Thousands of Greeks came to Germany after World War II as "guest workers" to help rebuild the shattered country and more than 300,000 Greeks currently reside there.

But the relationship is clouded by atrocities Greeks suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Samaras' own great grandmother killed herself after she watched Nazi tanks rolling down the streets of Athens and the swastika flying over the Acropolis.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias, whom Merkel also met on Tuesday, fought against the Germans as a teenager, before fleeing to escape persecution by the Greek military dictatorship and finding refuge in Germany.

The crisis has revived long-dormant animosities, with Greek protesters burning effigies of Merkel in Nazi gear and German media playing up images of lazy Greeks keen for German cash.

Relations hit a post-war low early this year when Merkel's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, likened Athens to a "bottomless pit" and proposed imposing a European "Sparkommissar" on Greece to control its finances.

"The average German voter is irritated at the thought of dispatching more taxes or savings to feckless southerners, yet is desperate for the respect and goodwill to Germany that comes from public displays of magnanimity," said David Marsh, chairman of think tank OMFIF.

"When Merkel flies to Athens, she's showing she's in charge, and she cares."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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By Chelsea Clinton, NBC News Special Correspondent

KAMPALA, Uganda – For more than 30 years, Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus have worked to help victims of the long Sudanese Civil War and Ugandans seeking refuge from the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Kony’s LRA has conscripted tens of thousands of boys and girls as soldiers and sex slaves and murdered tens of thousands of people.  Sister Rosemary is arguably the person who has done the most to help Kony’s victims recover and rebuild their lives.

In 2002, Sister Rosemary founded the St. Monica’s School and Tailoring Centre in Gulu, Uganda, her hometown, to teach literacy and vocational skills, such as tailoring.  Since opening, St. Monica’s has trained more than 2,000 girls who have escaped from the LRA and Kony. She said a major goal of the school is to give the girls and young women back the “dignity” and “self-respect” that Kony and the LRA took away.   

Now Sister Rosemary has turned her attention to another goal: helping people in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan hear with the help of Starkey Hearing Foundation.

Barbara Kinney

Rosemary, NBC News Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton, Starkey Hearing Technologies founder Bill Austin (second from left), Tani Austin (front left) and Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald (right) in Kampala, Uganda.

Due to a combination of factors, including a limited awareness that deafness can be treated and a lack of sufficient medical care, there are millions of people in the developing world and thousands in Uganda alone, with hearing problems that go untreated, but who could be helped by simple hearing aids.  Sister Rosemary says she knows hundreds of people in Northern Uganda and thousands throughout Uganda and South Sudan who struggle with hearing loss.    

“These are people who have resigned. They think they can never hear again and people have put them aside,” Sister Rosemary told me. She said helping them get hearing aids “brings them hope and helps them have a better future.”

Hearing aids
I recently met Sister Rosemary in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. She had brought more than 100 men, women and children from Northern Uganda to Kampala to see Bill Austin, founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, and his team. 

Starkey Hearing Technologies is a U.S.-based hearing aid company started in 1967 and currently one of the world’s largest suppliers of hearing aids around the globe. Austin launched the foundation in 1984 with the mission to ensure that people everywhere, particularly children, are properly diagnosed and appropriately treated for their hearing loss.  

Barbara Kinney

Rosemary, NBC News Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton and Starkey foundation employees at an event to help fit Ugandans with hearing aids in Kampala, Uganda.

Hearing loss challenges more than 60 million children around the world, according to the Starkey Foundation, most of whom do not have access to the hearing devices and care that can help them lead healthy, productive lives. The Starkey Hearing Foundation fits and gives more than 100,000 hearing aids annually.

Austin explained how his company gave root to his foundation, “I did the business side so we could provide hearing aids to the people who could afford it -- so that we would have the leverage and the ability to give hearing to the people who couldn't.”

The foundation’s work goes beyond handing out hearing aid devices to treating ear diseases. “I couldn’t stand to send these kids away with sick ears. So, we started giving medicine to all these kids, showing them how to use it, talking to their families and their school about it,” Austin explained. He added that they’ve also started sending more speech therapists out into the field all over the world.

Power of a smile
It was remarkable to watch Starkey give the gift of hearing for the first time to young children, as well as men and women of all ages. It was equally remarkable watching Sister Rosemary talk to everyone she brought with her with such calm reassurance, in at least six different languages during that one day in Kampala, and to listen to her talk about her work with such joy and conviction.  

A smile “is a great weapon,” she said as she laughed. She said that she can, “never imagine being done” with her work because there will always be more to help. She added that Kony and others are still “trying to keep people – especially – girls, down and afraid.”

For Austin’s part, he explained the rewards of their work.

“It's like giving someone a birthright when you give them hearing. It's like connecting them to life itself when you see the smile come across their face when they hear sound,” said Austin. “To hear their mother’s voice, to hear someone say I love you, just to hear words. A lot of the children have no vocabulary because they haven't heard, they have to develop speech. This is what helps them be all they can be.”

The smiles I saw in Kampala were a clear testament to Austin’s mission and to Sister Rosemary’s determination. And, as Sister Rosemary said, a smile is a good weapon against the LRA and others who want a different, bleaker future for Uganda.

Chelsea Clinton is an NBC News Special Correspondent. She recently traveled with her father, former President Bill Clinton, to Uganda as part of their work with the Starkey Hearing Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. As a member of CGI, the Starkey Hearing Foundation has pledged to give 1 million hearing aids to people and children in need in the developing world by 2020.

See more of Clinton's reporting: 

• Elephant population dwindles as demand for ivory grows
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