Born in rural Zimbabwe, the conjoined twins Tinashe and Tinotenda would have died if they hadn't been airlifted to SickKids to be separated. But after $200,000 worth of care, they were sent home to an uncertain future in an impoverished village. In "The Great Divide," reporter Marina Jiménez tells the remarkable story of these two boys and the doctors that saved their lives. Here, she talks tabout her research, the boys' amazing mother and the limitations of philanthropy.

What about the story of Tinashe and Tinotenda drew you to it? Were you following the story from the beginning?
I hadn't covered the story, though I certainly followed it in the press. And what I found so compelling was, how did this poor 40-year-old woman from a little village in Zimbabwe somehow end up at SickKids Hospital? I don't think the newspaper coverage really addressed that. When I started researching the story for Toronto Life, I realized that there was this really interesting connection involving Dr. Rachel Spitzer and Dr. Jacob Langer and Ve'ahavta, the Jewish charity organization, and all the links between Toronto and the small Zimbabwean village that Elizabeth Mufuka was from.

You never actually met her, did you?
No. And that was also a real challenge for a writer. I was working backwards and doing a story that was already complete. And seeking to track down all these characters from overseas, setting up telephone interviews in places that barely have phones, with people that barely speak English. It was a real challenge.

But that's something you're used to. [Jiménez was formerly a foreign correspondent for the National Post and is currently a senior feature writer for the Globe and Mail.]
Yes, I am. But we also lucked out because we had Dr. Paul Thistle, who runs the hospital in Elizabeth's village. Through him, we were able to set up a phone interview with her, which would have been completely impossible without Paul's help. Of course, she doesn't even have electricity or running water, let alone a phone in her little village.

Do you know how the boys are doing right now?
That was the one thing I thought a magazine piece could do—because everybody drops the story the day they fly home, looking so cute and charming and separated. Basically, while they're doing well, their scars are healing and they're learning to overcome their physical difficulties, the truth is they're now just two poor boys like so many other poor Zimbabwean villagers struggling with really basic things. Elizabeth has trouble getting the cash together to buy the milk to feed them. The economy's so terrible, they have a huge unemployment rate. Elizabeth was trying to set up a small fishing operation, but that didn't work because there was a drought. When we first chatted, Dr. Thistle said that, while this is a really heartwarming story, the truth is, these children are going to face incredible difficulties as young Zimbabweans. HIV and malaria rates are really high. Elizabeth can't afford to send her other four children to school. That's how poor she is. That was a very big surprise for me.

Did you get the sense that she would have wanted to stay in Canada?
The truth is, no. They were anxious to get back. Dr. Spitzer said a small part of her did worry that they might try to stay, and that wasn't the deal. But, in fact, the reverse happened. They very much missed their families back home. In another case of separation that took place several years ago at SickKids—I think they were from the Caribbean—those children ended up immigrating and are now being raised here. You do wonder, if Elizabeth and Grace, the midwife and translator, got a taste of the life we lead, would that mark them forever and make them dissatisfied with their lives back home? We haven't seen that in this case. But don't forget—they have their very complex family links and village ties that they would lose if they came here.

You write that, "a few medical ethicists have argued that doctors are now too quick to separate [conjoined twins], sometimes in the hopes of making a name for themselves." Would you agree with this opinion?
That was from the perspective of one of the surgeons, probably in a moment of great honesty. I think that possibly happens more in the United States, where there are smaller hospitals trying these very high-stakes separations. But I think the truth is, when you look at a lot of the cases of conjoined twins, they do come out of the developing world. They somehow make their way to these North American hospitals, but what kind of life would they have in their home environments if they were not separate? And the truth is, not a very good quality of life. So, while there may be an element of bravado in separation attempts, I think as long as the outcomes are positive, it's always going to be a good thing for the patients. Especially if they're coming from a poor country.

Did you come across, in your research, examples of conjoined twins who decided to stay in their birth countries?
Not so much. I did come across a couple of famous examples, in North America, of conjoined twins who chose not to undergo separation and were leading as good a life as could be expected. And were pleased with their decision to remain conjoined. But not so much in the Third World, no.