Though it affects more than 140,000 children each year, noma remains a little-known disease among the general public. Derived from the Greek word “nomein,” meaning “to devour,” the disease destroys the face, resulting in the death of the child in 90% of cases. In order to fight this scourge, in 2019, former footballer Roger Milla set up the Noma Fund association. Together with former internationals such as Joseph-Antoine Bell, François Omam-Biyik, Patrick Mboma, Rigobert Song, and Jacques Songo’o, he is today launching a global appeal for donations to save the lives of those called “the children without faces.”
Eradication of noma by 2030
As part of the “Acting Against Noma 2021-2030” project, which was officially launched November 20, Roger Milla is calling upon people around the world to take part in a major fundraising campaign. The objective is to finance an action plan aimed at completely eradicating noma by 2030 by implementing a policy of awareness, prevention, and care in the most affected regions.
Among other things, the funds will be used to build a regional reference hospital in Yaoundé, as well as care and first aid centers in ten project countries in Africa: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, CAR, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Chad.
20 euros = one child cared for
To help Roger Milla fight noma disease, every contribution matters – on the foundation’s website, donations can be made starting at five euros. Entirely transparent and secure, payments are made using PayPal, a platform which specializes in collections for NGOs and international associations.
“Each person can give according to their means,” insists Roger Milla. “The situation of children with noma is all the more shocking since solutions do exist and they’re within reach. Noma can be treated with a simple, relatively inexpensive drug. But for the people in extreme poverty who are affected by this disease, it is completely inaccessible.”
By way of illustration, 20 euros is enough to cure a child by administering a complete treatment (antibiotics, vitamins, and disinfectant mouthwash) as soon as the first symptoms appear and before the disease begins its lightning-fast evolution.
A specialist hospital established in Africa to treat children for free
Without prevention and access to sufficient care, the only chance these children have of getting through this is to be admitted to a specialist hospital. Today, the rare cases that are treated are transferred to European hospitals at an exorbitant cost. “Only eight children were able to benefit from this in 2019,” explains Roger Milla, regretfully.
Hoping to open in the first quarter of 2022, the reference hospital will provide complete and free-of-charge surgical care, facial reconstruction and rehabilitation services for noma patients from all over Africa. Construction has been earmarked for a plot of land near Yaoundé-Nsimalen Airport, made available by the Cameroonian State.
“The WHO as well as the International NoNoma Federation and the foundation Winds of Hope have also provided us with assurances of their support,” said Roger Milla.
