Lynch shares passion for Love Without Reason
She shared her story with Rotary Club of Farragut during its meeting in Fox Den Country Club Wednesday, July 22.
As many children around the country, Lynch was born with a unilateral complete cleft palate. She had five surgeries to correct the condition.
She later learned the condition can strike anyone and does not relate to environment.
Love Without Reason is a Tennessee non-profit organization that “exists for two reasons:” to repair cleft palates on children and adults and to fight human trafficking, giving women the skills they need to support themselves, she said.
RCF Past President Jim O’Brien, who introduced Lynch, a full-time nuclear scheduler and volunteer for various organizations, met her while volunteering at Shangri-La Therapeutic Riding Academy.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to appreciate who she is and what she does,” O’Brien said.
She recently returned from her latest Love Without Reason mission trip to Africa.
Lynch said the LWR group consists of more than 100 medical specialists and thousands of volunteers who have performed 1,400 surgeries since 2007 in India, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, United States, Nepal and Zambia while more than 300 women have been rescued from sex trafficking in its Project Butterfly program. Additionally, a water wells project was established to provide clean water and provide other innovative solutions.
The organization was founded in Chattanooga by Santosh and Susan Mathews, whose son, Philip, was born with a cleft palate, to “provide life-altering facial surgery to those living in countries with limited access to healthcare resources,” LWR website stated. “After understanding the link between craniofacial differences and human trafficking, they began working with survivors of sex trafficking and learning ways to impact and transform their lives.”
Philip Mathews, the inspiration for Love Without Reason, was born with a cleft lip and palate, about 20 holes in his heart, an absent right ear and eye and missing parts of his brain and doctors could not find his stomach, which shortly after appeared. He passed away in 2019 but before then, he was a motivational speaker and left the message, “If I stay silent, the darkness has no opposition …”
Although Lynch does not have a medical background, she uses her proficiency with computers to help with the mission’s database.
“Love Without Reason is
an amazing name because we go in other countries and we love without reason,” she said. “I go because He loved me first.”
The organization has done more than 1,462 surgeries, held 87 international medical missions/camps and have more than 100 medical specialists from eight countries and more than 1,000 volunteers across seven countries.
Lynch said LWR has rescued more than 300 women and children from sexual slavery, provided more than 3,000 Set Free (menstrual) pads, and “touched millions with the message of love without reason.”
While the medical staff performs as volunteers, the cost to provide the surgeries ranges from $1,000 to $75,000 per camp, depending on the location.
