DUTCH DES SABLES
Childcancer.org
Time & Tide Challenge 630
FARM Africa
St Helena Hospice
Mercy Ships
Noma
Facing Africa
Oxfam
Children's Cancer Foundation (Germany)
Fred Hollows Foundation read articles
His name is Christian Farthing from
Germany and he will be running the 22th MDS for Facing
Africa !
His website is dedicated to his project of participating
and hopefully finishing the MDS in 2007 (March,23rd - April,2nd)
and also raising funds on his path that leads up to the
run, all the way through the desert and past the finishing
line and whereever after.
You can support him by making donations to his chosen cause.
He has set up a blog for the latest news and his training
progress
You can make a donation online on his web site
What is Noma ?
Noma (cancrum oris) is an acute and ravaging gangrenous
infection affecting the face. The victims of Noma are mainly
young children caught in a vicious circle of extreme poverty
and chronic malnutrition.
Noma begins with ulcers in the mouth. If the condition
is detected in the early stage, progression can be prevented
with the use of common antibiotics and immediate nutritional
rehabilitation. If left untreated, as happens in most cases,
the ulcers progress to Noma at an alarming pace. The next
stage is extremely painful when the cheeks or lips begin
to swell and the victim's general condition deteriorates.
Within a few days, the swelling increases and a blackish
furrow appears and the gangrenous process sets in and,
after the scab falls away and a gaping hole is left in
the face. It is estimated that the mortality rate reaches
up to an alarming 90%.
Survivors, those whose pitiful faces can be seen on these
pages, can arguably be described as the fortunate ones.
However, their lives will never be the same and they will
suffer three main afflictions - facial disfigurement, functional
impairment and social outcast.
The scar tissue restricts jaw movement and a child who
survives is unlikely ever to be able to speak or eat normally
again. In infancy, some children lose their lips and soon
die of starvation, as they are unable to breast-feed.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates an annual
incidence of 500,000 victims world-wide. This means that
around 450,000 children aged between infancy and puberty
will die each year, mainly in sub-Saharan countries from
Senegal to Ethiopia, a region also known as "the Noma belt".
