Charity hope to give Alieu gift of hearing
A Lanarkshire charity are determined to bring a deaf African schoolboy here for life-changing surgery.
Project Gambia: People Feeding People have submitted a second visa application in a desperate bid to help young Mohammed Cham, also known as Alieu.
They want to bring him to Scotland for medical treatment that will enable him to hear for the first time.
The charity, who support St John’s School for the Deaf in the Serrekunda area, tried to bring Alieu over last year but had their visa application denied.
Now it is hoped they will find out if the application has been successful in the next few weeks .
Rebecca Lafferty, Project Gambia fundraising director, said: “The plan, should this second visa application be successful, is for Alieu to have the operation done voluntarily by staff here in Lanarkshire.
“This is all with the help of the recent partnership Project Gambia has formed with NHS Lanarkshire and one of Scotland’s top ENT surgeons, and would mean the medical team involved will stay after their shift has been completed to do this operation, so it does not affect the patient care of anyone living in Scotland.”
Lynne Macdonald, Project Gambia trustee, added: “The equipment has also been donated so this operation will run entirely on a volunteer basis.
“We’d like to thank the medical team at University Monklands Hospital. We’d also like to thank the Catholic Diocese of Motherwell. If not for the support we’ve received from the different parishes in the West of Scotland, this venture would not be possible”.
Project Gambia was set up seven years ago to support St John’s School for the Deaf in the Gambia.
Thanks to the charity the school has undergone massive improvements over the years.
These include a school feeding programme that sees the 350 pupils receive food every day and given school uniforms, clothing and learning materials.