Make Me A New Face – Hope For Africa’s Hidden Children ( VIDEO )

by ocean

BBC broadcast a documentary about Ethiopian kids suffering with leishmaniasis.

Please be advised some of the content you will see might be disturbing.

In 2008 Ben Fogle caught a flesh-eating disease called leishmaniasis which, if untreated, would have destroyed his face. In this film, Ben investigates a sickness that’s far worse but virtually unheard of – noma, which eats away the faces of thousands of Africa’s poorest children. Ninety per cent of noma victims die while survivors are left terribly disfigured.

Every year a British charity sends top cosmetic surgeons to Africa to treat those affected. Ben Fogle travels to Ethiopia, where he joins in the difficult task of finding noma sufferers who are hidden away in shame.

Ben fogle and mestikima outside her home in addis ababa

Ben fogle and Mestikima outside her home in Addis ababa, Ethiopia

On his journey Ben meets three children whose lives have been blighted by the terrible disease: teenager Rashid, forced to hide his face in public; Asnake, aged 11, whose misshapen mouth makes him dribble constantly; and 10-year-old Mestikma, abandoned by her family because of her deformity.

These children join other noma victims in Addis Ababa for radical transformative surgery. Demand is overwhelming, and the visiting surgeons don’t have time to treat everyone. Ben watches the teams carrying out amazing surgery. A month later he returns to Ethiopia to visit the recovering patients. For them, a new face means a new life.

Please be advised some of the contents might be disturbing

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2 comments

Adiam Atsbha June 22, 2010 - 7:37 pm

I just don’t have any words that could really express how I feel after watching this…thank you for posting.

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Meron Assefa June 22, 2010 - 11:19 pm

My goodness, what can I say?!!!! The saddest thing I have ever seen! I’m so heart broken to remember how many more would be affected everyday, as we very well know the poverty is escalating in every second! How sad we are getting hopelessly into more misery of such type!!! You know when you are living in a country where they worry everyday about iwhether it’ll be warmer tomorrow or not, you don’t even get it why we are cursed to even not afford food for our kids, to the extent half of their faces are taken off by gangrene!!!! SAD!! This is not something I should see in the middle of the night…GOD HELP US ALL!

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