Fifteen-year-old Kadja Mangane lives with her parents in Boki Saboudou village, located in the Matam Region of Senegal. Hers is a modest family, which lives on farming and ranching. Born with a harelip, Kadja had lived most of her life in painful loneliness, ostracised by her classmates and isolated in her own family. Kadja was so affected by her condition that she became withdrawn. When she spoke to people, she put her hands to her lips and face to hide her cleft lip.
The situation prompted her drop out of school three years ago when she was at CE2 class level (4th year in primary school). "I stopped going because the other students would make fun of me. They used to call me “Ngapy" (cleft lip in Pulaar, a local language). So one day I told my mother that I did not want to go back to school.”
Kadja before the cleft lipsurgery
Kadja’s fortunes changed one day when a field agent visited her village on a mission to identify potential fistula and cleft lip patients for AMREF’s surgical outreach programme, which has been running in Senegal since 2011. Twenty people were listed, but only eight, including Kadja, were eligible for surgery, which took place in the Regional Hospital of Ourossogui from May 13 to 17, 2013.
Kadja recovering after the surgery
Today Kadja is a happy girl, thanks to AMREF and its financial partners (African Health Club, Spanish cooperation and Smile Train). The operation opened a new page in her life, and her mother was quick to express her gratitude for the intervention: "You (AMREF) have relieved my daughter’s pain and sorrow. You have given her the chance to return to school and to find a husband one day. God bless you."
AMREF is a transparent organisation distributing funds of up to $85 million per year.
