It was no surprise that 9-year-old Adam Zidane loved playing soccer. He was born on the same day as a 2009 Champions League match, and he was named after the famous French soccer player, Zinedine Zidane. Nothing brought his father, Abdoulai, more joy than watching his...

Young Mansare dashed around the dock, his frayed sandals flapping as he ran and his laughter bringing a smile to his mother’s face. “Look at him. Look at him walk,” his mother, Simone, said. “He can really play now. Before, he would get tired and come back after ten...

Yeabsira’s parents have always thought of him as their gift from God. Even if this gift came with a measure of grief. He was their first child, and he was born with Apert syndrome, which can impact the shape of the head and hands. For Yeabsira, this meant that his...

Ten-year-old Houssainatou lives in a town in the highlands of Guinea with her parents and her four siblings. If you ask Houssainatou, her childhood has been a happy one: she talks about playing jump rope with her friends, helping to take care of her little brother,...

Aliou is energetic, affectionate, and persistent. At 5 years old, this boy loves riding bikes, chasing bubbles, and dancing. Aliou is like most little boys — except for one thing.  A fire left the young boy with third-degree burns on his right arm. With...

For 10 years, Lydienne’s world grew darker … and darker … Slowly losing her eyesight from cataracts felt like a lifelong prison sentence for the 65-year-old seamstress. The blindness stole her independence because she was forced to rely on family members to be her...

The first sight of 3-month-old Paul revealed a feather-light bundle cradled in his desperate mother’s arms. His skin was paper-thin and his body remarkably tiny. He weighed just over 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) – less than he had when he was first born. The tiny baby was...

Fanta has worked in the medical field for over 17 years, but she was afraid to have surgery herself to remove a 10-pound tumor under her right arm. For 10 years she hid the tumor under draped shawls while she worked. “How can I expect people to respect me as a nurse...

Ousman was excited to receive the call from his sister saying that his niece had finally been born. However, that excitement quickly turned into heartache once he learned that baby Aminata had been born with a cleft lip. When he heard the distress in his sister’s...

Amadou refused to be defined by the tumor that had been growing on his face for more than 15 years. To those in his community, 46-year-old Amadou is a doctor, a leader, and a pillar of hope. Medicine was a clear path for Amadou, who had been a practicing nurse for...

Operating a fleet of floating hospitals means managing a host of moving parts. From building relationships with other nations to staffing a crew of volunteer professionals – and, of course, serving our patients – you might say the work onboard a Mercy Ship requires a...

On the day he came to Mercy Ships, 12-year-old Sekouba held a weathered picture in his hands. The photograph, with frayed edges and faded color, was of a young boy with an unblemished face smiling brightly at the camera. “This used to be me,” Sekouba said. Only two...