Okey Sampson, Aba
Joy Clement, 13, from Vandeikya in Benue State, is in pain. And she needs N600,000 to live a normal life.
At birth, she had a pimple in a corner of her anus. As she grew up, what was seen as an ordinary pimple began to expand, becoming a boil at a point.
Initially, her parents started applying local therapy to see if the boil would be suppressed, according to Mr. Terfa Clement, Joy’s elder brother. He said the more the therapy was applied, the more the boil kept protruding. After a while, Joy’s mother died and her father, a farmer, was left to take care of the girl.
Said Terfa: “Joy has something like some growth, which covers her anus, that makes it difficult for her to excrete. When she was still an infant, the growth appeared like a boil. As she started growing, the boil started getting bigger and, at a point, it covered her anus. Initially, we thought it was what local herbs could cure as we were meant to understand by some family friends, but the thing kept growing in size.”
Presently, Terfa said Joy no longer goes to school. She stopped at Primary 3 because her classmates used to mock of her whenever she went to school as a result of the growth and the girl, unable to withstand the embarrassments any further, decided to pull out of school.
“She said she would not continue to go to school to receive insults from her follow pupils. In fact, she is now ashamed to go to school and that is one of the reasons, apart from the discomfiture, we want the tumour removed as quickly as possible.”
It was when Joy could no more bear the excruciating pain as a result of the anal disorder that her brother, Terfa, took her to the Nigerian Christian Hospital, Nlagu, near Aba. At the hospital, it was diagnosed that Joy was suffering from “sacrococcygeal teratoma of the anus,” which would require surgery to correct.
According to a medical report by Dr. Brian Camazine, chief of surgery at Nigerian Christian Hospital, N350,000 is required for the surgery, while the remaining N250,000 would be for her post-recovery expenses.
Terfa said the family was not in any way capable of raising the money since members of the family, who are basically farmers, had been displaced by Fulani herdsmen who invaded their homes and farmlands since last year.
Joy, who appealed for financial assistance through an interpreter, said she would like to get back to school and continue her education from where she stopped, if she gets well.
Joy, who said she was of the Catholic faith, called on organisations, kind individuals and the government of her home state, Benue, to come to her aid.