It’s easy to see Ibrahim’s joyful spirit. His adorable grin is absolutely infectious, but as soon as the one-year-old tries to stand up, his twisted feet become evident.

His mother, Salimatou, noticed that something was wrong with Ibrahim’s feet as soon as he was born. Both of his feet were bent inwards, a condition which only worsened as Ibrahim grew. Once he began crawling and eventually attempted to walk, Salimatou’s fears grew stronger. She soon realised that something was wrong with her child — something she had no way to fix.

Ibrahim is the youngest of five boys, all of whom keep Salimatou on her feet from dawn to dusk. In order to keep Ibrahim safe, Salimatou would often keep him in a sling on her back, but, she knew that this wouldn’t work as he grew older. With his ability to walk becoming increasingly limited, Ibrahim was facing a future full of difficulties and few options.

One day, Salimatou and her husband heard a radio announcement about a hospital ship that would be sailing into Guinea. After travelling to the Africa Mercy, Ibrahim and his family were hopeful that this would be their chance to find healing for his legs.

Ibrahim was welcomed into the Mercy Ships Ponseti clinic and was soon undergoing treatment to heal his clubfoot. He spent seven weeks in casts, which gently manipulated his feet into a normal position, before undergoing a simple surgery to snip a tendon in his ankles. Afterwards, he was recast and given several more weeks to heal.

Halfway through Ibrahim’s treatment, his mother said, “I can see the difference in his feet already. His feet are getting straighter each week — we can all see it! It makes us so happy.”

While his time in casts was over after leaving the ship, Ibrahim still has some work to do before he is fully healed. He will continue to wear a nighttime brace for years, to ensure his feet stay straight, much like wearing a retainer after having braces removed.

The simplicity of Ibrahim’s treatment is encouraging for other children suffering from clubfoot. The Ponseti treatment doesn’t require a state-of-the-art operating room or cutting edge surgical equipment, but instead relies on time, plaster, patience, and proper training.

Clubfoot program manager Aisling Russell from the UK has brought several local Guinean medical professionals alongside their team throughout the Ponseti process. By providing local hands-on training and letting them be a part of every step of the journey, the Mercy Ships Ponseti team hopes that these locals will be able to continue treating children with clubfoot in Guinea long after the ship sails away.

You don’t have to look far to see the effects that this training is having. Mercy Ships was based in Cameroon the previous year, where the Ponseti team ran similar mentorship programs with local professionals. This year, they brought back a familiar face to lead Ibrahim’s tenotomy procedure: Dr Faustin Atemkeng Tsatedem, a Cameroonian orthopaedic surgeon who received this training during the last field service. He visited Guinea several times to assist with surgeries like Ibrahim’s and to help train a new batch of medical professionals.

“The Ponseti Method of treating clubfoot is the gold standard treatment method used worldwide. Children who complete treatment are then free from deformity and a life of disability,” said Aisling. “In the context of Guinea, this is even more poignant as there is a misunderstanding about the cause of physical deformities that brings shame and limited opportunities for work and marriage. The transformation is obvious, but the lifelong impact is that these children then have a chance to live a life free of shame and the opportunity to work and input to their community.”

He’ll be able to walk like other boys when he grows up. It makes me so happy to see him like this.

Ibrahim is so young that he won’t remember life before his Ponseti treatment. He’ll grow up with feet that carry him where he wants to go, with the only remnant of a former life being the brace he wears at night for the next several years — but his mother will never forget.

It was eight years earlier when Charity first met Sylvester. Even back then she strategically draped across her face in an effort to hide the tumour growing around her mouth.

At the time, Sylvester was in the remote Ghanaian village to work on a humanitarian construction project. His heart immediately went out to Charity, but when he offered to bring Charity to a hospital for surgery her family refused, deciding to use herbal medicines to help heal her.

In 2018 Charity saw Sylvester in her village again. The seven years in between had left their mark in the 39-year-old’s life. Charity’s tumour had continued to grow and was now larger than her head. This time when Sylvester he asked if he could like help, Charity bravely accepted.

Charity didn’t know about Mercy Ships and the free surgery that could change her life – but Sylvester did. He was no stranger to the ship, having coordinated for several patients to come for surgery during its 2016 field service in Benin through his organization, VARAS*. He knew how to arrange for Charity to be seen by the surgical screening team to determine if her tumour was operable, and VARAS even helped provide funds for the necessary airfare to reach the Africa Mercy.

Charity courageously undertook the journey to the ship despite having to encounter so many strangers along the way. Her enormous tumour drew curious looks and ridicule at every turn – but she wasn’t alone. Sylvester kindly accompanied her. After spending so long hiding her face from view, Charity wrestled with being seen by others. Having her passport picture taken to get on the plane from Ghana to Guinea took an inspiring amount of bravery —but she crossed every bridge necessary to bring her to healing.

‘She’s been laughed at, and people attach superstitions to her, explained Sylvester. She’s always indoors and told to cover herself. She has had to eat in a separate room from everybody else. I needed to be here with her.’ After spending so long hiding her face from view, Charity wrestled with being seen by others. Having her passport picture taken to get on the plane from Ghana to Guinea took an inspiring amount of bravery —but she crossed every bridge necessary to bring her to healing.

Once on board, even with the burden she was carrying, Charity’s smile was radiant as she met other patients in the Mercy Ship wards before surgery. On the day of her operation Charity was filled with nerves, and so was Sylvester. But soon after her successful surgery, the remarkable Charity was strong enough to get up and walk around the wards. Sylvester was so overcome he couldn’t stand, saying, ‘I was crying because of the shock of seeing her tumour gone.’

Despite the enormity of her tumour, Charity’s recovery was quick and uncomplicated, a blessing they both thanked God for. When her bandages were removed Charity couldn’t help but smile each time she glimpsed her tumour-free face in the mirror.

‘I’m looking forward to being welcomed back. The people who had negative thoughts about me will be surprised,’ declared Charity. ‘They will see that there’s nothing wrong with me, that it’s all been taken away. I am well,’ she stated. But Charity was more than well; she was transformed!

‘The effect of an untreated tumour in her case would be death. Now, Charity’s life is saved,’ reflects Sylvester.

Charity returned to her village where she was greeted by her husband and five excited children. They were amazed by her transformation. She was almost unrecognisable.The friendship between Charity and Sylvester won’t end here. He has arranged for VARAS to continue their support and provide capital for Charity to expand her farmland, they also hope to train her in further options to earn an income.

Charity’s future had once seemed dark, but is once again full of possibilities — and so much joy.

‘She can rejoin her community. We’re thankful to Mercy Ships for this miracle,’ says Charity’s Good Samaritan.

* Volunteers for Amelioration of Rural Areas (VARAS) is an NGO that seeks to help bridge the development gap between rural and urban communities.

HIS CLEFT PALATE WAS CAUSING THE BABY BOY TO SLOWLY STARVE

Paul Pascal arrived as a feather-light bundle cradled in his desperate mother’s arms. His skin was paper-thin, his body tiny. At three months he weighed two kilos – less than a newborn

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND THANK YOU’s
to God for the restored lives and new future for Paul Pascal and the multiplied thousands who have passed through the hearts and care of the crew on this vessel of mercy in the past 40 years

Paul Pascal was born with a cleft lip that disfigured his face and a cleft palate that made it impossible to breastfeed properly. His mother watched helplessly as he grew thinner and weaker. People around her called him a monster.

His mother was scared. ‘We thought he would die.’ But her love knew no bounds as she rocked her tiny, hungry, crying baby through long nights. Then she heard that hope had arrived in port.

As soon as the Africa Mercy medical crew in Cameroon examined Paul Pascal they recognised his condition was critical. They rushed him and his Mum on board before the hospital officially opened to monitor his temperature and feeding.

It was touch-and-go for a few days before the little boy began to turn the corner. Then once he was considered safe to leave the hospital, dieticians checked Paul Pascal regularly to track his growth, measure the size of his head, arms and legs, assess his feeding. They continued to encourage his Mum and suggest methods for her to help Paul Pascal have a healthy weight gain.

NUTRITION THEN FREE CLEFT LIP AND PALATE SURGERY SAVED HIS LIFE

Gradually Paul began to change. His gaunt face grew round cheeks. His hair grew thick and healthy, and his listless eyes were now content as he grew stronger.

Only 3 months later and weighing 6.4 kg, Paul Pascal was strong enough to undergo the first surgery to restore his cleft lip. His Mum worked hard to help Paul Pascal gain catch-up weight and reach the normal height to weight ratio.

In another five months, he was the size of an average 11-month-old and strong enough to have his cleft palate restored. The operation connected the muscles of his soft palate and closed the gap in the roof of his mouth, enabling him to eat and speak normally as he grows up.

Just a few weeks later in 2018, Paul Pascal’s post-op check saw him tip the scales at over 9 kg! No one would recognise the emaciated baby they had first seen. Paul Pascal’s journey to healing was complete and his future is changed forever.

               FELICIA HAD SUFFERED A LIFETIME OF REJECTION

She arrived at the Mercy Ship Anastasis with a definite air of expectation. For over 50 years Felisia had lived without a nose.

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND THANK YOU’s
Since 1978 Mercy Ships volunteers have joyfully provided 100,000 free surgeries; changing the future people like Felicia living in poverty in developing nations

When she was just a teenager, a painful wound appeared on Felisia’s arm. She credits this as the beginning of her suffering. After three months the wound almost covered her entire arm. Felisia’s parents took her from one traditional healer to the next, and in the following three years spent all their money in the futile quest for help. She says her anguish was perpetrated by the treatment by the Beninese village witchdoctors.

When the wound on her arm seemed to be healing, Felisia felt a similar malaise on her head. Within days her nose throbbed with pain. After four years of suffering, the pain disappeared – along with her nose!

VOLUNTEER CREW PROVIDE FREE ESSENTIAL SURGERY

Through a series of operations onboard the Mercy Ship in 2000, volunteer surgeons reconstructed Felisia’s face. A scalping flap was created from her forehead to build her a completely new nose.

After the many weeks of healing, Felisia was thrilled with her restored face. She laughed and danced through the ships’ wards, flirting with the doctors and asking the men to marry her. ‘I never dreamed of this but now I will look beautiful!’ she declared.

When she finally descended the gangway, Felisia held her head high, proudly stepped out and pointed her nose in the direction of home.

Houssainatou lives in a town in the highlands of Guinea with her parents and her four siblings. The ten-year-old would say her childhood has been a happy one: she talks about playing jump rope with her friends, helping to take care of her little brother, and climbing the trees that speckled their neighbourhood.

Houssainatou’s father, Souleymane, has worked hard to protect this childhood free from fear — but his reality has been very different. The facial tumour protruding from Houssainatou’s mouth filled every day with worry that he would have to watch his daughter struggle and die at an early age.

The first sign of her condition came when Houssainatou felt pain in her mouth when she was just a toddler. It eventually became a lump that steadily grew over time.

Her family decided two years ago to keep Houssainatou home from school because of her health. Instead, she would stay home with her mother to help cook and clean the house. They worked hard to ensure their daughter was happy, and didn’t feel defined by her condition, but Souleymane says it was very difficult for them.

‘We’re all worried. We worry all the time,’ he said. ‘We have no money. The village clinic can’t help her. We can’t afford the kind of surgery she needs. We kept praying, and worrying, and looking for help.’

The maize farmer felt he was failing Houssainatou because he was unable to generate the funds needed for her medical care. ‘I can only get enough food to feed my family, but not extra,’ he said. ‘I’d never have the means to take care of surgery for my daughter.’

One day, a relative living in the port city of Conakry told Souleymane about Mercy Ships. He brought his daughter to several rounds of patient selection screenings — and eventually, she was accepted for free surgery onboard the Africa Mercy.

When the time came for them to walk the gangway to the ship, Souleymane called himself the happiest man in the world. Houssainatou’s bravery had never shone brighter — as she explored the place that would be her home for the next two weeks, a volunteer crew member asked her how she felt about her upcoming surgery. ‘I’m not nervous… I’ll be asleep through it all anyway,’ she said.

And what a transformation while she ‘slept’! After just one day — and a four-hour surgery — Houssainatou was down in the wards of the Africa Mercy getting ready to see herself in the mirror, tumour-free, for the first time in her young life.

The sight made Souleymane exuberant with joy and gratitude. ‘I cannot believe it. She is so beautiful!’ he exclaimed. ‘I am so happy and so excited to bring her home to see the family.’

After several post-op follow up appointments, Houssainatou was healed — happier and healthier than she’d ever been. As father and daughter got ready to leave the ship and return home to their family, Souleymane reflected on what her surgery has meant to them: ‘My heart is free now. The fear is gone,” he said. ‘I used to spend every day afraid she would die young, but now I will spend my time helping her have a future. I want her to become a doctor so she can help people the way she herself has been helped.’

Written by Rose Talbot