Their stories

Cambel

His hobbies The story

Cambel, with his bright eyes and malicious gaze, was born in Ounbega, in the county of Djidja in Benin. His mother, responsible for educating her four children, helps her husband with farming activities that enable to meet the family’s needs.
It is at birth that the midwives notice the deformity of his gastrointestinal tract and refer him to paediatric medical centres to receive primary care. The probability ratio is of 1 on 5000 to be touched by this abnormality which requires specialised surgical care.

Referred to the team of Terre des hommes onsite, many conversations were engaged with his family to allow his transfer to Switzerland. The 4 year-old Cambel flies off to Switzerland for a wonderful adventure which will finally allow him to live like “all others”, free of medical assistance.

Cambel was hospitalised in the CHUV and stayed then in La Maison. Only able to speak in his mother tongue and noticing the difficulties of non-verbal communication, he quickly started repeating words in French to better interact with his new friends.

Even though he seemed to keep his distance with the group, a great sensibility and fragility were noticeable in his gaze and timid smile. Behind this capricious behaviour lies a true need for a very particular attention.

Dibé

His hobbies The story

Dibé was born in March 2017 with a heart defect: an anomaly which affects her blood oxygen level. The little girl’s condition requires specialised medical care but those are unavailable in Togo. The idea of not being able to treat Dibé and of her not living until adulthood generates shock and disbelief. Her parents are distraught.

In 2018, after weeks of profound anguish, Dibé’s doctor introduces her to the delegate responsible for the specialised care programme of Terre des hommes in Togo. He requests her transfer to a foreign medical centre. Her application is successful. What a relief! But it will only last a short period of time. The next step is not easy. Dibé will have to fly to Switzerland without her parents. She will be looked after by a volunteer of ASF (Aviation Sans Frontière), competent, caring and thoughtful. Nevertheless, the situation is painful even if this is a promising option. The fear is palpable. The proximity, the company and support of delegates of Terre des hommes in Togo help them take the step. Many children have been transferred and come back in great shape. Their only daughter will live!

In Januray 2019, after traveling more than 4500 kilometres, Dibé arrives in La Maison in Massongex with all the other children welcomed for pre and post-operatory stays.
She successfully undergoes surgery in January in the CHUV.

Having access to medical care is a right; it should not be a chance or a privilege. Dibé will, nevertheless, be lucky, amongst thousands of other children whose lives depend only on human solidarity and your support.

Elmami

His hobbies The story

Born in December, Elmami suffers from respiratory disorders since he was 3 months old. He lives with his family – his parents, two brothers and a sister – in a very modest house in Dar Naïm, a poor neighbourhood in the suburbs of Nouakchott. His father, facilitator within an agency for rural electrification programs, provides for his family alone. Day-to-day life worries are oppressive.

Diagnosed with an aortic valve disease and a ventricular septal defect, Elmami’s doctor refers the boy to a surgical mission at the national cardiology centre in Nouakchott. This mission does not dispose of all necessary means for the intervention and therefore requests his transfer to another specialised centre abroad. His file is then sent to Terre des hommes.

After traveling more than 4000 kilometres, the timid child arrives in La Maison in Massongex and joins in with all the other children welcomed for a pre and post-operative stay.
In La Maison, Elmami’s behaviour is exemplary. Devoted and helpful, he rapidly integrates the group. The young boy is calm, never complains and is very much aware of his level of tolerance during physical activities.
Elmami is successfully operated in May.

Leaving La Maison, Elmami never imaged he would be coming back. The breath of fresh air he was after, the child had found in a welcoming and humanitarian Switzerland. His health condition had greatly improved, yet no one would know what his future was made of. To dare to think of it is to throw some light on the weakness of a child who underwent heart surgery and the vital importance of a medical follow-up in his home country, a coherent care specific to Terre des hommes.

Back in Switzerland, Elmami was operated for the second time in Bern and his aortic and pulmonary valves, practically destroyed, were replaced. The child, out of surgery, is stable. The evolution of his health condition is very positive, reassuring his worried family. A week after his hospitalisation, he is back in La Maison, more vigorous than ever! A beautiful life-lesson.

Balkissa

His hobbies The story

Balkissa lives in Burkina Faso. She is 3 years old when the course of her life changes in just a few days. Small wounds start appearing, at first, near her mouth, then an oedema, a necrosis on her cheek. It is noma, and the illness is ravaging her cute face. Yet the girl is lucky in her misfortune: her parent’s immediate reaction, taking her to a medical centre enables to contain the gangrenous infection and therefore avoid heavier damages to her face. An antibiotic treatment is prescribed to the young girl to stop the progression of noma. She is then transferred to Switzerland to undergo surgery.

Two surgeries and a six-month long stay in La Maison are necessary for Balkissa to get her face back.

In La Maison in Massongex, Edouard, Yérissieni and Massaran, also suffering from aftermaths of noma, help Balkissa during physiotherapy sessions that help them regain their jaw mobility.

After heading back to her home country, Balkissa will be looked after by Sentinelles.

Ibrahima

His hobbies The story

The youngest of five children, Ibrahima was born in the south of Senegal. The boy is 6 years old when the first symptoms of his illness appear. A recurring cough and difficulties breathing lead his mother, who suspects asthma, to bring him for a consultation in a clinic. A cardiac anomaly is detected. Ibrahima is then directed towards a hospital for an ultrasound scan. The diagnosis is confirmed: the child suffers from mitral valve regurgitation. He is kept for observation for a week and starts a medical treatment in view of a surgery which reveals to be impossible in Senegal due to a lack of infrastructures: a truth translating itself in the family’s feeling of extreme helplessness.

Informed by the hospital, the delegation of Terre des hommes in Senegal decides to transfer the boy to Switzerland. Before engaging in the “journey to life” that will save him, the young child must first receive regular medical care in Dakar, 400 kilometres away from his home. For his family, moving to the city is inevitable. Alerted by this emergency situation, a family originally from the same village and living in Dakar since a few years, welcomes Ibrahima and his mother in their home.
The great generosity of this family does not stop there; they also financially support the purchase of Ibrahima’s medical treatment and his transportation fees to travel to the hospital. The solidarity is concrete and important. And the day of his transfer finally arrives.
After more than a five-hour flight, Ibrahima’s plane lands in Geneva in December. As soon as he arrives, people are astonished by his ability to adapt to his new environment, his kindness and politeness. Multiple medical consultations and health examinations schedule his weeks. His surgery is planned in January. In the meantime however, he does not get bored. In La Maison, the children’s schedule is filled with activities: school, lunch, visits at the nursery, hobbies, etc. The young boy particularly enjoys playing foosball with his new friends.

And the big day is finally here… For more than three hours, surgeons of the university hospital in Geneva heal Ibrahima’s heart and repair his defective valve, a congenital anomaly. His operation is a success, and after five days, he heads back to Massongex for his recovery surrounded by the staff of La Maison.

Ibrahima, back home with his family, can now contemplate a serene future. This joyful epilogue is only possible thanks to a chain of competencies and solidarity refusing what is unacceptable.

Maradilla

His hobbies The story

Maradilla is a little girl, only knee-high to a grasshopper, and too small for her age. Born in a hurry in Benin, her premature start in life was the sign of a complicated one. In her first months of life, Maradilla faces back-to-back pulmonary infections. She is restless and continuously in need of medical attention. During one of her numerous medical consultations, an even more serious threat is detected: a congenital heart disease. It is at the source of her respiratory distress. Her parents struggle to accept the diagnosis and the questions it raises are terrible.

No one knows how long Maradilla will live; she is weak and fragile… But the forecast is hardly encouraging. The little girl and her parents engage in a race against time. Due to a lack of appropriate technical means to face such situations, the local doctors are unable to bring the much needed help Maradilla needs. In the little girl’s circle, no one is willing to give up.

The little girl crosses path with a delegate of Terre des hommes: a glimmer of hope – the organisation has been active in Benin since 1974. Maradilla will be transferred to Switzerland to receive medical care. What happy news! She flies off to Switzerland by herself.

Since her arrival in Massongex, day after day, step by step, Maradilla is face to face with an uncertain life. For the little girl, this is the path of hope, leading to her surgery, and finally, life. Her surgery is planned in August and it is a source of worry. Explaining, reassuring, showing empathy and patience are key to preparing Maradilla to her open-heart surgery. She succeeds, when we were all shaking in our boots. Her recovery in Massongex is optimal.

Maradilla is by nature a very happy smiling child. Before leaving La Maison to head home to Benin, in October, she is radiant. No doubt that coming home healthy, healed and saved, she will make her whole family happy again. But not only has she made them smile… She has made us too, and you as well. She has shown us, once again, that by working together, hand in hand, we can offer the chance of a new life to a child.

Adam

His hobbies The story

Adam comes into the world in the North of Morocco. His father works the land to sustain his family. This seasonal activity makes it difficult to feed his family and provide schooling for his eldest daughter. Soon, Adam’s skin appears to have a bluish colour and his body shows signs of exhaustion after the slightest physical effort. Worried, and regardless of the little financial resources they have, his parents take him, without hesitation, to Rabat for a medical consultation at the Children’s Hospital. The diagnosis is irrevocable: the little boy suffers since birth of a congenital heart defect called “tetralogy of Fallot”. The necessary surgery to save his life is impossible in his home country as it is the case for all children housed in Massongex.

Luckily, there is a solution for Adam’s parents called Terre des hommes; a unique opportunity to see their little boy grow up under one condition: they must let him travel to an unknown country without them.

During his first days in La Maison, the staff notices his shyness and fragility; which soon fade away thanks to the kindness of the staff members and the warm and welcoming environment. The other children also help this acclimatisation period, noticeably Myriam, a 5 year-old Iraqi girl who underwent heart surgery and takes him under her wing. A real bond is born between these two.

Adam is admitted in the CHUV, in Lausanne. His surgery is a success. After a necessary few days in the intensive care unit, he returns to La Maison. Full of energy and mischief, his constant smile brightens his whole face.

After a final consultation and dental care, Adam can finally return to his home and to his family who are waiting, impatient, for him to come back.

What memory of this brief yet determinant stay will this young Moroccan boy keep? Of his time spent in La Maison? It’s hard to tell today. Let us trust that his parents will remind him that somewhere in Switzerland, people wanted and allowed him to live.

Mawussé

His hobbies The story

Mawussé arrives in Switzerland with only a few belongings. In her rather large medical file there is a note: oesophageal stricture. The little girl thought she was drinking water, when it was in fact… caustic soda! A chemical product used as a component for soap in her home. Unable to feed herself, she was destined to die.

From that moment on, her life and her parent’s become a nightmare. Desperate after this dramatic accident, her parents bring her to Lomé, the capital of Togo, her home country, where she receives immediate medical attention. Luckily, she survives… but the terrible aftereffects cannot be treated onsite. A transfer is obligatory for such a complex surgery. And it will be in Switzerland, thanks to Terre des hommes.

Upon her arrival in Switzerland, Terre des hommes and the doctors in the CHUV realise the extent of her injuries and promise themselves to allow the little girl to once again speak and eat normally. Since the accident, Mawussé was being fed by a tube connecting her stomach to her backpack which contained liquid food and monitored the flow rate.

A few months after her surgery, when her oesophagus heals, Mawussé eats again and uses a fork. Her recovery is a long path. In Switzerland, in La Maison at first, where, with the support of her speech therapist and her endless efforts, she slowly manages to speak again when her mouth was completely unable to make even the slightest sound.

After finding a therapeutic solution overseas, a warm welcome in Massongex, it takes a lot of time for her to find her way back to a normal life at home. She still carries her feeding tube
allowing to control and adapt her diet and monitor her lifestyle, catches up on the school program… yet, Mawussé still has the last word!

Like all children that come to stay at La Maison, Mawussé truly showed us the meaning of courage. Support our actions to allow other children like her to live.

Rodayna

His hobbies The story

The reason behind Rodayna’s stay at La Maison is not obvious for one who isn’t aware of the symptoms of her illness. Her tinted purple lips draw a beautiful smile on her face, and the skin of her hands also have a bluish and unusual colour. The little girl suffers from a rare heart malformation, source of a heart failure.

Behind her contagious smile and love of life, the 5-year-old girl hides many fears: learning to live here, in Massongex, without her parents – that she temporarily had to leave -, meeting new children and caring people she doesn’t know, and the fear of her future surgery.

Although she was explained many things back home, in Morocco, with the help of videos, brochures, and reassuring words, her fears related to her future hospitalisation seek the necessary reassurance. As soon as she arrived, Rodayna was curious to learn about the other children’s experiences in La Maison and their stays in the hospitals as well as the care they received. She even smiled when one of her new friends proudly showed the scar on his thorax. In La Maison, the children support each other. These exchanges are extremely precious during their stay and beneficial for their recovery.

Rodayna was operated on successfully in June. After spending three months with the other unlucky children in La Maison, she flew home, healed, back to her family in September.