Hamadou was 4 years old when he came to the Africa Mercy® in Senegal. By then, he had learned to cope with the physical limitations of his cleft lip, a gap in his upper lip that impacted his ability to swallow and eat, as well as how his teeth were growing. But the cleft lip continued to hold him back socially, even within his own family. People in Hamadou’s community drink their water from a large pot that they share with other members of their household, as well as any guests. “People would not want to drink from the same water pot as him,” said his mother Hawa. While Hamadou was isolated in some ways, his mother was always by his side providing constant support.

For Marthe Lamah, becoming an anesthetist was a life-long dream.  “Since I was little, I always liked to help vulnerable people,” she says – and she believed patients receiving surgery in the operating room were among the most vulnerable of all. “I understood immediately that there is a specialty where you could take care of this type of vulnerable people with proper training in place.”  Right now, Marthe is one of more than 20 students studying to become a nurse anesthetist in Guinea’s Gamal Abdel Nasser University. At the front of the classroom is Professor Joseph Donamou, the catalyst behind the program.  

Twenty-nine-year-old Talla Gueye, from Senegal, ventured into entrepreneurship hoping to find solutions to youth unemployment in his community. He has always been a take-things-into-your-own-hands kind of person: “Taking charge and seeking change to problems motivates me,” he says.  So, he started a clothing brand that would inspire and empower young people in Senegal. He named it Sigui Doxx, a term in his native Wolof language that translates to “keep your head up.”  His mother inspired the deep care for community that drove him to social entrepreneurship, as he grew up watching her exemplify compassion.   “Whenever she cooked, she put out a huge plate of food for anyone in the neighborhood. She also invited relatives who were struggling to stay with us.”   Now, Talla brings that empathetic approach and entrepreneurial attitude to his work with Mercy Ships, where he started off translating for volunteer medical crew providing free surgical care in Senegal.