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Adama’s cleft lip prevents him from eating properly
Adama's cleft lip prevents him from eating properly
At just 10 months old, Adama suffers from a cleft lip, formerly known as “cleft lip”. In Africa, this pathology is often perceived as a curse, forcing families to isolate themselves. To avoid superstition, Adama was hidden from birth.
But this malformation is not just a cosmetic problem. Adama can’t suckle properly, and much of his mother’s milk comes out his nose, causing him to suffocate. And since he doesn’t eat well, he doesn’t grow well, his growth is thwarted.
After a consultation at a health center in Ouagadougou, Adama’s parents were relieved to learn that La Chaîne de l’Espoir organizes twice-yearly surgical missions to treat maxillofacial deformities. A godsend for little Adama!
Our volunteer medical teams operate on around a hundred children every year , and train some sixty nurses and care assistants. Dr Leslie-Ann See, a surgeon at Dijon University Hospital and the Georges-François Leclerc Center, will soon be leading a new medical mission. We hope to include Adama in the surgical program to be carried out at Saint Camille Hospital in Ouagadougou.
The surgery will reconstruct the lip and erase the deformity, giving Adama the chance to live a normal life.
However, this operation has an incompressible cost of €1,500 per child. The mission as a whole, including operations, care, medicines, transport for medical teams and consumables, amounts to €35,000. This sum will also enable us to treat around twenty other children in the same situation.
Adama’s parents, displaced to another part of the country after fleeing the jihadist attacks on their village, are unable to take on this burden.
Thanks to your generosity, Adama and the other children will be able to undergo surgery during the next medical mission to Ouagadougou’s Saint Camille hospital.
In Burkina Faso, and elsewhere in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, children with heart disease or malformations need your help. Only surgery can save them. All year round, we are confronted with these urgent and difficult cases.
Let’s act together!
