The Gift of life.........

This letter comes from seven year old Salma Janjua, a recent orthopedic patient on board the Africa Mercy. Not only do the patients bear physical ailments and injurys but they also carry the emotional scars of isolation, rejection and torment. In countires such as Sierra Leone conditions such a tumours, club feet, cleft lips and bowed legs are seen as a sign of being cursed. People afflicted with these conditions are often ostracised from their schools and communitys and live in great shame. It is very common to see people with large facial tumours covering them with cloths and head coverings. Surgery brings freedom, surgery brings healing, surgery brings restoration, surgery gives life......