A mother’s heart is unstoppable regarding her child’s well-being. Through her determination and perseverance, Fadima shows us that although life is hard and full of obstacles, there is hope, healing, and restoration. For her and her daughter Batouli, hope finally had a shape, a tangible existence, when they visited CURE Children’s Hospital of Niger for the first time.
Batouli, a 14-year-old girl with a fragile appearance, is the only one of her siblings to suffer from osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), which causes her bones to bend and break easily. On top of that, she developed genu valgum (knock knees), which caused her legs to curve inward at the knees. Because of these conditions, she couldn’t stand up or move around.
Hope will Fight Every Demon
Batouli’s parents visited different traditional healers hoping to find the cure they’ve been looking for so desperately “Once, when we visited one of the healers, the evil spirits spoke through his mouth and said, “It’s over, it’s over; your daughter’s legs will never straighten,” Fadima said. That led Batouli’s father to believe that anything they did would be in vain because he believed in healers and their evil spirits.
Medical treatment was out of the question due to the high cost.
However, Fadima couldn’t accept the thought that her daughter would be unable to walk for the rest of her life. So, with no money but a fierce hope that Batouli could be healed somehow, Fadima and Batouli went to Niamey’s capital to find a hospital to help them.
Unfortunately, the one they had been advised to visit wasn’t functional. Brokenhearted, they returned home. A few days later, Fadima met a former CURE employee who advised her to bring Batouli to CURE Niger.
When Fadima shared the idea with Batouli’s father, he was against it and insisted on returning to the healers. But Fadima trusted everything she’d heard about CURE Niger, and despite her husband’s refusal, she returned to Niamey with Batouli to see what CURE could do for them.
Finding More than Physical Healing
On her first day at the hospital, Batouli met children who also struggled with orthopedic conditions. Surgeon Dr. Uli consulted her and said her immune system was weak and she needed to be strengthened before surgery. Batouli underwent nutritional treatment for several months at her home, provided by CURE. “When we returned to the village, I told my husband I would never return to the healers again because CURE Niger can help us,” Fadima said.
After a few months of getting nutritionally fit, Batouli returned to CURE Niger for her first surgery. Dr. Uli did not have an easy task in straightening both legs, but with a well-trained medical team to assist her, she corrected the bones in Batouli’s legs.
While Batouli was undergoing her lengthy postoperative treatment, Fadima also found a community at CURE Niger. The social department taught her and other guardians to sew, knit, prepare soap, and make bracelets. These newly learned skills could be used to create an income source once the mothers are home.
Fadima’s husband couldn’t deny the results he saw in Batouli’s body and came to appreciate everything CURE did for them. He encouraged her and Fadima to continue with the treatment. Finally, Fadima and Batouli were experiencing the hope that would never put them to shame again.
After a recovery period divided between visits to CURE and home therapy exercises, Batouli returned to the hospital for a second surgery. While continuing her bone-strengthening treatment there, she and her mom learned more about God’s love and participated in CURE’s social and educational activities.
Back Home
Batouli and her family used to live in the bush together. There, they were relatively isolated from social contact and access to transport and other economic opportunities. It is a real struggle for most people to put “bread” on the table. Fadima is no exception to this reality. As Batouli’s treatment involves regular hospital visits, she prayed for a chance to move to a village. “There is a better place to live than out here. We must walk a long distance to access any means of transportation, market, or school. I prayed, and God listened again to my prayer. My husband agreed, and now we are staying in this small village,” Fadima shared. “It is better than before.” At this new home, she makes mats to sell and earns a little money to support her family. Mat weaving is a common craft among women across various ethnic groups in Niger. It is considered a woman’s job. Fadima takes pliable materials like grass or straw and starts hand-weaving them. For a very hardworking weaver, generally, it takes up to five or six days to produce one big colored mat.“I do not earn much, but it helps,” Fadima said.
A Hope that Enables
Batouli is still on her road to recovery. Before, she couldn’t stand on her own two feet, but now she can walk. She remembers one of her neighbors telling her that she would never walk. So once she was able to, she went back to the lady and said, “Now I can walk!”
For Fadima, CURE Niger is a place of healing, for it is here where her daughter found healing—and where her life changed forever. “God has given us many things, but the greatest of all is my daughter’s health, for which I am forever grateful.” Batouli added, smiling, “I love CURE Niger because that’s where I learned to walk.”
Learn more about the conditions CURE Niger treats here.
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About the CURE Children’s Hospital of Niger
CURE Niger has been a place of hope since opening its doors in 2010. Ours is the first and only hospital in the country to provide Christ-centered care and charitable surgeries for children with treatable disabilities. Our teaching hospital has 58 beds, two operating rooms, and an outpatient clinic. In addition to world-class medical care, our team ministers to the emotional and spiritual needs of our patients and their communities.
