| Ali was born in the Guinea countryside with a cleft lip. Having never known his father, he became an orphan at eight months of age when his mother died from disease. His grandmother took Ali in and tried to give him an education. But his deformity quickly made him the joke of the school. Ali refused to go back and subject himself to ridicule. Then his grandmother died, and Ali was shipped to Sierra Leone to stay with his aunt. It was there that hope dawned for him when his aunt’s family heard of a Mercy Ship coming to Freetown. Ali received a successful onboard operation. Today he is enjoying being treated as a normal child. He dreams of one day become a doctor when he grows up, because of the way he saw people treated when he was on the Mercy Ship. |
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| Daba was thrilled with the difference her lip and palate surgery made in her appearance after a successful onboard operation on a Mercy Ship. |
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| Demba never knew the mother who had died while giving him life, and his mother, of course, never knew of the horrible gape in the tiny lip of her only son. A travelling man, Demba’s father took his young son on all his journeys. Everywhere they went, they tried to find someone who could repair Demba’s lip. His appearance brought rejection wherever he went until after 42 years of humiliation he was accepted for surgery onboard a Mercy Ship. After his surgery onboard, Demba held a mirror in his hand. His eyes shone as he examined his new countenance. “If the Mercy Ship had not come, my lip would still be wide open,” he related. “This ship is very, very good!” |
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| Macrena suffered from a cleft palate and lip. With the help of highly skilled surgeons, her pretty little face was restored in an operation onboard a Mercy Ship. |
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| When Omar was brought to a Mercy Ship, he was five months old and weighed an unbelievable six pounds. Omar’s cleft lip and palate left him without the ability to receive nourishment and he was dying of starvation. Mercy Ships medical personnel provided nourishment for Omar and strengthened him for surgery. Within a month, he was brought up to an appropriate weight for his onboard operation. Today Omar eats and drinks normally, and is a healthy and happy child. |
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| Six month old Ruth will never be stared at or rejected because of a cleft lip and palate. Her lips were perfectly restored by highly skilled maxillo-facial surgeons after an onboard operation on a Mercy Ship in West Africa. |
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| Eight-month-old Mamadou was emaciated and on the brink of death when he was brought onboard a Mercy Ship docked in the Conakry harbor. Too skinny to be operated on, after being under the nurses’ care for three weeks, he left the ward after gaining more than 8 pounds. Mamadou continued to gain weight through bi-weekly checkups and supplies until he was big enough for surgeons to safely repair his cleft lip and palate. When his mother saw her miracle child made completely whole, Jenah’s eyes filled with tears and she said, “I want to let Jesus be Lord of my life. I know that He has made a way for Mamadou to survive.” |
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