Abdullah's story

After 13 years of constantly feeling ashamed and embarrassed, Abdullah Hamed has finally been cured of the condition that had stigmatized him his whole life. On August 18th, 2009, Abdullah got surgery for his cleft palate condition, a physical deformity that had made his life miserable. After his father died some time ago, Abdullah was left living with his mother, who had to support him and his four brothers. Throughout his life, Abdullah had continuously been teased and made fun of. He usually ate by himself due to the fact that other people felt disgusted when they ate in front of him. He could not attend many social gatherings because other children used to be afraid of him. Many of his family members considered him to be a bad omen, and prohibited some of his cousins to be around him. This made Abdullah very sensitive and insecure, reaching a point where he could not be around people. “Getting this operation has been the most important thing in my life. I know that from now on everything will be different!”. Abdullah and four other children were jointly sponsored by ADRA’s PHY IV and Yemen Smile, who are planning to continue its association by sponsoring several other groups of children from the Hais district of Hodeidah. There are many other children like Abdullah, who have never had the opportunity or the financial capability to solve a serious medical problem that can be solved with a relatively low cost surgery. After Abdullah called his mother from Sana’a to tell her that he had been cured of his cleft lip, his mother cried and blessed Allah and ADRA for giving her son another chance. After returning back to Hays with the 5 cured children, many families were deeply grateful for the work ADRA is doing in this remote region in Yemen. As a father of one of the patients said, “We are very happy and want to deeply thank ADRA and their team for helping our community, and we are praying to Allah so that you can continue changing people’s life in our community”.