Mariama, six, starts school after life-changing surgery
As Awa grew up in her village, she encountered the hardships of living with a cleft lip. “People in my village did not cast her out, but they laughed at her, and she was ashamed. They would say ‘look at how your mouth and lip are’, which made her embarrassed. She used to hide her mouth with her hand,” said Rougui.
Both Awa’s parents and her uncle kept looking for an answer to their prayers, but they couldn’t see any solution in their future.