TANI'S WISH

Tani’s Wish

Copyright © 2015 The Ghana Cleft Foundation.All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission the Ghana Cleft Foundation, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

IllusTraTIonsJosephine Anderson, Imar Graphix

WrITerRuby Yayra Goka

DesIGn anD laYouTIsaac Marfo, Imar Graphix

ConTaCTGhana Cleft Foundation P.O. Box KS 150064Kumasi-Ghana+233-322-040819 OR [email protected]

ISBN: ----------------------------------

Though the Ghana Cleft Foundation works with numerous children and their parents/ guardians, this book is a work of fiction and all people, places and institutions in it, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

TANI’S WISH

This is a story about a girl called Tani who had only one wish: to go to school. Tani was born with an upper lip that had a space in-between it. People in her small village gave different reasons for this.

The village healer said it was because Tani was a spirit child. He also said she should be sent back to the spirit world. The village herbalist said it was because Tani’s mother ate groundnuts when she was pregnant. He also said Tani would never be a ‘normal’ child.

The women in the village said it was because Tani’s mother was quarrelsome. They said she had reaped the reward of her sharp tongue. The men said it was because no one knew who Tani’s father was. Though some people said she resembled the chief of the village no one said it out loud.

Tani’s grandmother said it was because Tani was a special baby. Tani chose to believe her grandmother’s reason. But only Tani and her grandmother believed this and two out of fifty is not a majority.

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More than anything else in the world, Tani wanted to go to school. She wanted to learn to read and write and spell her name. In her village, Tani was the name given to girls born on Monday. She

wanted to learn the numbers and to count and to do sums.

But each time her grandmother took her to the village school, Tani came home in tears. Some of the teachers and students called her names. Some said she was a spirit child and some said she was evil. Some said she was cursed and some said she was a bearer of bad luck.

No matter how much she tried to be nice to them, no one wanted to be her friend or to share her lunch with her. It got so bad that some of the parents of the other children complained to the headmaster. The headmaster had no choice but to ask Tani not to come to the school anymore.

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TanI’s WIsH

“You’re beautiful. You’re clever. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,”

Tani’s grandmother told her. But how could she believe this when people avoided her and laughed at her? When even her

own mother had abandoned her? How could she believe this when she looked different from anyone else? When little children took one look at her and ran to their mothers or began to cry?

Each morning as Tani went to the stream to fetch water she watched in envy as the boys and girls in her village walked to school. She listened in envy as they said their nursery rhymes and their multiplication tables. How she wished she could go with them. But she knew that was never going to happen.

After her morning chores she helped her grandmother weave baskets for sale at their village market. On very good days Grandma might sell six or seven baskets. But some days, she was lucky if she managed to sell a single basket.

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One market day, Tani’s grandmother came home earlier than usual.

She was so excited she could hardly sit. Her hand shook as she accepted the calabash of water, Tani gave her.

“I have good news,” Grandma said.

“Did you sell all the baskets?”

“No. I haven’t even sold one,” Grandma said laughing and clapping her hands.

Tani didn’t know what to think. If Grandma hadn’t even sold one basket there wouldn’t be food on their table the following week.

“The gong-gong beater announced that some doctors have come to Wa,” Grandma said with a huge smile on her face.

“He said they could help people who had conditions like yours.”

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TanI’s WIsH

For the first time in a long time, Tani felt really happy. Her grandmother took her hand in hers and danced with her around their little mud hut. “Grandma, are you sure? Really sure?” Tani asked.

“Have I ever lied to you, my darling girl, have I?”

Tani sat on a stool and gingerly touched her upper lip and the space within it. To think that that space would no longer be there made her giddy with joy.

“But Grandma,” she said suddenly as a thought struck her.

“Wa is very far away and how will we get the money for the hospital?”

Grandma’s smile grew even broader. “It was Hajia Salamatu who told the gong-gong beater to come to our market. You remember her, don’t you?”

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How could Tani forget Hajia Salamatu? Grandma had told Tani that it was Hajia Salamatu who had bought infant formula and baby clothes for her when her mother had abandoned her in the village.

Each time Hajia came to the village to visit her aging parents, she brought clothes and shoes to Grandma and Tani.

“Hajia sent a message to us through the gong-gong beater. She wants us to meet her at Wa tomorrow morning. She’s going to pay for everything. And look . . .” Grandma put her hand through the neck of her blouse and into her brassiere. She brought out a wad of cash. Tani gasped. It was more money than she had ever seen in her entire life.

“Look, she even gave us money for our transportation.”

Tani was so happy that she began crying. Grandma hugged her but did not tell her to stop. That evening they packed a few of their clothes and supplies into Grandma’s old travelling bag. Neither of them slept much that night. They kept whispering to each other until dawn broke. They were on the first bus that left their village to Wa.

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Tani had never been outside her village and Wa was a big, bustling town. There were people everywhere and the buildings were bigger and better looking than any in her small village. There were more

schools too. She counted as many as three schools on one street alone. The hospital was not hard to find and Hajia Salamatu was waiting for them as promised.

She led them to a section of the hospital where some people were sitting on benches waiting to enter a room. Tani was surprised as she drew closer to them. All the children waiting to be seen had spaces on their lips. Some even had the spaces on both sides of their lips and not just at one side like hers. There were even some adults who had the same condition. She counted as many as six of them. Some of the children were just babies but others were her age and some were older.

She turned to look at Grandma who looked just as surprised. Tani had thought she was the only person in the world with an incomplete lip. It felt so good to know there were others just like her. It felt even better to know that something could be done about it. But the best feeling of all was no one looked scared or looked away or got up and left when she and Grandma approached the group. None of the little children began crying or ran to their mothers. Most of the mothers and children smiled at her.

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Agirl about her age made space for her on the bench she was sitting on.

“Hello,” the girl said smiling. “I’m Lamisi.”

“Hi, I’m Tani,” Tani said shyly. No one had ever been so nice to her before.

“Is this your first time?” Lamisi asked.

Tani nodded.

“This is my second time,” Lamisi said proudly. “Look,” she said and brought her face closer to Tani’s face.

It was only then that Tani saw two faint scars on the girl’s upper lip.

“It was fixed last year. And this time they’re going to fix the hole in the roof of mouth,” Lamisi said. She opened her mouth wide and Tani saw the hole at the top of Lamisi’s mouth. “Do you have a hole too?” Lamisi asked.

Tani shook her head.

“Then yours will be easy.”

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TanI’s WIsH

Tani had so many questions to ask her but a nurse called Lamisi’s name and Lamisi and her father walked into the room.“Grandma did you see that girl?”

Grandma nodded smiling. “You’re not the only one.”

Tani didn’t get to see Lamisi again that day. Her name was called next and she and Grandma entered the room. A group of nurses and doctors sat around a table. Tani had expected to find foreign doctors and was very surprised that they were all Africans.

The team was friendly and they made her feel welcome. A nurse translated everything the doctors said to Tani and her grandmother. They told them the condition was not a curse. They told them no one knew the exact reason why some people were born with it and others weren’t but the good thing was there was a solution to the problem and that was all that mattered.

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TanI’s WIsH

Both Tani and her grandmother were asked a lot of questions. They were both transferred from one table to the next. Someone measured Tani’s weight and height, a second asked her grandmother about

her immunizations, a third checked her chest and breathing, a fourth examined her lip and mouth and the fifth assessed her speech.

She was finally sent to another room where blood was drawn from her arm for some tests. That hurt a little but everyone was so nice that she forgot the pain.

The next day, they sent the results of the test to the team of doctors. The doctors were happy with the results and booked Tani’s surgery for the very next day. The nurse who had done the translations the previous day explained what was going to be done and answered all the questions Tani, Hajia Salamatu and her grandmother had.

That night Tani slept in the hospital. She was in the same ward with Lamisi and she spent the night chatting with her new friend.

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Tani was the first to be operated on the next day. She was very scared and though Lamisi had told her it would feel like she had been asleep, she was still afraid. She was made to lie down on a

narrow table in the middle of a room with a lot of machines. There were a lot of bright lights. Someone put a mask over her face and asked her to breathe in deeply.

The next thing she knew she was lying on a bed and someone was smiling down at her and saying, “You’ve woken up.” She fell asleep after that and when she woke up again she was on her bed in the ward.

Her grandmother’s face was the first face she saw on the ward. Her grandmother had tears in her eyes but was smiling.

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The plaster was taken off Tani’s lip on the second day. The doctors and nurses were happy with the results and Lamisi was jumping all over the place saying, “You see, I told you, they could fix it!”

Grandma went down on her knees with tears of gratitude spilling out of her eyes. One of the nurses gave Tani a mirror and she saw for herself what everyone was raving about. The hole was gone! Just like that it was all gone. Something she had lived with her whole life was no longer there!

“Thank you!” Tani said to the team around her bed in her English. She said it perfectly, the way Lamisi had taught her.

The doctors smiled and patted her head and moved to the next the bed. Tani spent the entire day staring at her lip. She looked different. She even felt different. She knew she was still the same person but she couldn’t explain why she felt different. She loved this new lip, she had. She loved how it had transformed her face and how it made her feel special and beautiful.

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Tani and Grandma stayed with Hajia Salamatu for a week before returning to their village. The very next day after their return, Grandma took Tani to the village school.

Tani dressed in a new school uniform, sneakers and with her new school bag and supplies stood tall and proud beside Grandma as they walked to the school. Grandma was dressed in all white. They ignored the stares and the whispers from people and Tani could sense the news about her repaired lip spreading faster than bush fire through the village.

At the school gate, Grandma gave her a hug and told her, “You’re beautiful, you’re clever, you can be anything you want to be and I’m so proud of you.”

Tani enjoyed her first day of school. And when the bell rang for closing she couldn’t wait for the next day so she could go back.

Grandma was waiting for her at the school gate and Tani told her everything she had learned as they walked to their small hut.

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Just before they entered their compound a woman who had been waiting under a neem tree rushed towards them. She carried a small boy of about six months in her arms.

“I heard the rumours but I didn’t believe them but now I have seen it with my two eyes. Do you think they can help my son too? I have kept him hidden all this while.”

She turned the boy’s head in their direction and Tani noticed that he also had a cleft on his lip. The mother opened his mouth and she saw the cleft in his palate.

Tani looked at the little boy and smiled.

“They can help him. Those doctors can do anything. And they are our own people. He’ll be fine. Send him to the hospital and when he grows up, he’ll be able to go to school. Just like me.”

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BEFORE AFTER

BEFORE AFTER

BEFORE AFTER

BEFORE AFTER

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The Ghana ClefT foundaTionThe Ghana Cleft Foundation was set up in 2006 as a charitable organization to provide assurance, hope and to relieve the anxiety of patients and guardians of people living with cleft lip by providing surgical correction of these conditions. Most of these surgeries are carried out for free. The organization also provides regular training of specialists to help manage cleft conditions.

how You Can help? Donations to the Cleft Foundation is open to all. You can support usin the following ways:

• Donate money either one-time, monthly, quarterly or annually• Fundraise for us• Sponsor our medical outreach or training programmes• Sponsor a child

Donate to our ecobank account,a/c name Ghana Cleft Foundation,Harper road Branch.a/c no. 0213074414843601.

For more information please visit:www.ghanacleftfoundation.org

Tell: +233-3220-40819 or +233-275-201-020.

Thank you.