Despite working in the medical field in Cameroon for over 17 years, Fanta was too frightened to seek treatment for a tumour under her right arm. For nearly 10 years, she learned to strategically hide the tumour under draped shawls while she worked, refusing to have it...
If not for his surgery this morning, Elodie’s son, Emmanoel, would have died by suffocation before his third birthday. A tumor in his mouth cut off his airway to the point that he was passing out three times a day. Emmanoel’s shallow and labored breathing sounded like...
There is an imaginary line that goes down the middle of Delamou’s face. It is the line between his “good side” and his “bad side,” between beauty and stigma. On the right is a sweet seven-year-old-boy-smile, and on the left is an area of tissue between his eye, nose...
Four years ago, a little girl named Jaka was spinning around in circles with some other children while her mother was at the market. Around and around, arms out, chin up, her face full of smiles. Tragically, when Jaka lost her balance, she plummeted into her aunt’s...
Cyrus was 18 months old and suffered from a cystic hygroma. When local medical people said they could do nothing for Cyrus, his parents travelled to a Mercy Ships screening to see if they could remove the tumour protruding from the infant’s neck. “When I first saw the...
Awa has lived with her cleft lip for over forty years. Many people could not see past her disfigured mouth, to see the loving wife, mother, and daughter who thrives on making others smile. With no means to pay for an operation, Awa had accepted living with her...