Noma is a disease that affects people all over the world. It is treatable with surgeries and antibiotics. Some people that do not have enough money have to live with this very deadly disease. Noma kills 90% of those who are infected. Ethiopia is one part of the world where infected people are dying all the time because they cannot afford to get the medicine they need. Noma pretty much eats a person’s face. Towards the end stages of Noma, it is hard for the infected person to eat or even talk, making it difficult to survive. It does not harm any other part of the body. The 10% of those infected that do live have trouble interacting with people in everyday life.
Mr. Le Roux Fourie took an interest in this cause and decided there was something he could do to help. He could perform surgeries free of charge for the people in Ethiopia and supply them with much needed medicine. Fourie was already practicing cosmetic surgery in Leeds Yorkshire. He found other surgeons that wanted to help these people live. They ended up making the first trip over to Ethiopia and staying 10 days. They had to determine who they needed to help first. this was very hard for them because there were so many people in need. They knew that many would not make it much longer without help.
Then there were those that were far past the point of helping, that would end up dying no matter what the surgeons did. They ended up helping 44 infected people during their stay. This was not nearly enough to begin to solve this problem. Other doctors heard about the mission and wanted to help. There were more groups formed that planned to donate their time in Ethiopia as well.
