Noma

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Noma is an acute gangrenous infection affecting the face. Its victims are mainly young children living in extreme poverty, chronically malnourished and with little access to medical care. Some 90 percent die within weeks of contracting this terrible disease, and survivors can be left severely disabled.

The disease was eradicated in Europe and North America a century ago, save for outbreaks in Nazi concentration camps. However, it persists in the world’s ‘noma belt’ -  countries, such as Ethiopia, which border the Sahara and have high levels of malnutrition and poor access to medicine. Noma develops when a child’s antibodies that normally fight external viruses become 'confused'. They turn on their host body, attacking the soft tissue of the cheek, mouth and nose. The World Health Organisation estimates that there are approximately 770,000 survivors of noma, with 140,000 new cases per year.

Survivors are left scarred and disabled. They are frequently unable to eat or speak normally, and confront great social stigma. Many individuals with a facial ‘difference’ are ostracised by their communities, and many of our young patients are denied their right to a school-place or even abandoned. Our patients come from poor, remote regions of Ethiopia, where there is little prospect of treatment without outside help. 

Project Harar’s outreach team cover great distances, working with local health workers to contact noma survivors and raise awareness of the treatment available. We arrange free transport to the hospital, accommodation and care. Surgeons in Addis Ababa, assisted by visiting specialists, perform extremely complex surgical procedures to improve facial function and appearance, giving noma victims a new chance in life.

It costs just £250 to reach a child with noma and secure the complex operations and follow-up work which they require to rebuild their lives. If you can help, please click here.