NOMA? Does it ring a bell?
Early November, he boarded from Paris with two cured children and arrived in Ouagadougou where parents were joyfully waiting to be reunited with their loved one and after a quick turn-around he boarded the flight back to Paris on 3rd November with a special companion called Tené.
This time it was a man of 42 years old suffering from “NOMA”, a gangrenous disease leading to tissue destruction of the face, especially the mouth and cheek. Tené is from Burkina-Faso countryside. He is illiterate and his illness prevents him from speaking, enough reasons to care for him and to provide him with an escort all the way to Geneva where a cure is awaiting for him.
His journey started when the local correspond of “Sentinelles” NGO brought him to the airport and was introduced to Jean-Pierre. Tené was overstressed of being in an unknown environment with unknown people, he must have felt so scared not knowing what was going to happen to him, but Jean-Pierre found a way to comfort him, he literally took him under his wing and Tené quickly felt reassured and at ease with his new travelling companion.
From then, all went smoothly: customs officers agreed to let Jean-Pierre carry onboard baby food pots for Tené so he could enjoy a perfect meal of mixed meat, vegetables and compote. Thanks to the wonderful AF’ crew who considered their special guests as VIP, Tené enjoyed a good night sleep, despite the fact he was in an unknown surrounding and probably experiencing flying for the first time! He was so happy...
On arrival at CDG, Jean-Pierre introduced him to Claude, another ASF volunteers who escorted him to its final destination. At Geneva airport, Tené finally met members from “Sentinelles” NGO that would lead him to treatments and hopefully his complete recovery.
Aviation Sans Frontières is happy to be once more a link in this “chain of humanitarian hope”.
It is about 200 children suffering from NOMA disease that ASF escort every year.
Noma is a devastating gangrenous disease which attacks mainly children, quickly destroying their mouth, nose and face.
It mainly occurs in Sub-Saharan belt. Most victims starve to death because their jaw muscles are literally eaten away and they cannot chew.
Noma survivors are disfigured for life and are commonly shunned by their communities, relegated to a life with a little social or emotional comfort or support as they are considered being a sign of the devil, when a simple mouth wash could at an early stage radically stop the process.
ASF was one of the first members of the International Noma Federation and still is. www.nonoma.org
ASF acts in two fields to help reach solutions for the disease:
- by escorting children to their health treatment, in partnership with two NGO based in Lausanne (Sentinelles and Terre des Hommes),
- and as prevention is the cure, ASF transport educational materials to increase awareness of population, so family as well as health workers can better act and put an end to the disease.
