A brave four-year-old boy is able to start school with a smile after receiving life-transforming surgery from a medical charity.

Hamadou, from a village in eastern Senegal, was born with a cleft lip, a gap in his upper lip that impacted his ability to swallow and eat, as well as how his teeth were growing.

While the condition is ideally completed while the patients are still a baby, Hamadou’s parents could not afford the surgery he needed.

Babies born with cleft palate often struggle to nurse, which impacts their mother’s milk production and often leads to malnutrition and risk of developmental delay.

Hamadou and his parents had fought through, but the cleft lip was holding him back socially, even within his own family, and prevented him from attending school.

People in Hamadou’s community drink their water from a large pot that they share with other members of their household, as well as any guests.

“People would not want to drink from the same water pot as him,” said his mother Hawa.

While Hamadou was isolated in some ways, his mother was always by his side providing constant support.

Then his family heard that surgical charity Mercy Ships had one of its two hospital ships in the port of Dakar, Senegal, delivering free surgery to people who have little access to surgical care.

International faith-based charity, Mercy Ships has partnered with African nations and local organisations over the past three decades, to provide surgical training to local healthcare professionals and support the construction of surgical infrastructure. 

Hamadou’s parents were overjoyed when Hamadou was cleared for surgery to mend his cleft lip.

American nurse Mary Toupin met him when arrived on board the hospital ship the Africa Mercy and could see that this little boy was a fighter.

Mary said: “As an infant, it can be really challenging to eat because the lip impacts the ability to suction and drink milk.

 “The fact that he was already four, and he had lived his whole life with a cleft lip, means that he had overcome a lot. He was a four-year-old with the courage of a 24-year-old. I take care of a lot of four-year-olds back in the United States, and I can tell you he was very exceptional.”

For Lily Orcel, from France, who was volunteering as a pediatric nurse for the first time with Mercy Ships, said it was eye-opening at first to see patients like Hamadou, who had been living with a treatable condition for so many years.

 “We also have adult patients who come with the same condition,” Lily explained about Mercy Ships.

“Just to know that we can have a huge impact on their quality of life with a surgery that we would do more easily back home, and they’ve been waiting for that their entire lives—it’s just an honour to be part of such a process.”

A few weeks after surgery, the swelling in Hamadou’s face had subsided, and he was able to smile like never before in his life. Discharged from the Africa Mercy hospital, Hamadou and Hawa returned to their home, an eastern village in the Tambacounda region of Senegal.

The operation had come just in time to fulfil Hawa’s wish for Hamadou to enrol in school, unhindered by his condition. Hamadou had a deep passion for technology just waiting to be fostered with the right education.

His love of technology was also observed by the volunteer videographer on board, Eugene Ampadu from Ghana.

He said: “You could just see him really lighting up the moment he saw technology. I remember giving him the headset and he was just quiet, watching how it was all going.”

For Eugene, that shared interest was one more way that he could help provide new hope to Hamadou.

He said: “Patients are not only receiving healing through their physical conditions but they are also being healed internally, being restored to families, being restored to friends. And in the case of Hamadou, they are being able to see hope in the various gifts and talents within them.”

Each year, more than 3,000 volunteers from over 60 countries serve on board the world’s two largest civilian hospital ships, the Africa Mercy and the Global Mercy.