NIGER, Suaba's story
When Suaba was two years old, she started getting ill. She became weaker and weaker, until finally she was unable to walk.
UNICEF/ HQ07-0315/Christine Nesbitt
Suaba's mother, Habsu, took her to the local health clinic every month. But the nurses did not know what was happening to her – or to the dozens of other children in Tibiri, southern Niger, who had the same symptoms.
Then Niger's Water Resources Department tested the water supply. They found that the residents of Tibiri had been drinking water with concentrations of fluoride four times the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. For more than 15 years, poisonous levels of fluoride had been causing fluorosis in some 5,000 children, including more than 300 who, like Suaba, had severe bone malformations.
Habsu was more relieved than angry: she was glad to know that the mystery had been solved, and that no more children would have to suffer. Local groups worked quickly, and with the help of UNICEF, were able to provide alternative, improved water sources. A local committee was set up to test Tibiri's water regularly.
But Suaba, who by this time was nine years old, had already suffered severe damage to her legs. Her education had also suffered: because of her health problems, she had never gone to school. "I just stayed home and did nothing," she says.
Habsu worried about Suaba's future. How would Suaba support herself? Would she find a husband?
But then donor organizations joined together to set up the Tibiri Children's Centre. The Centre provides health care as well as special classes to help children who have been unable to go to school.
"I went to see a doctor and a dentist many times," says Suaba. "They told me what I should eat and gave me some exercises to do." But Suaba's bone malformations were so bad that it was decided she needed surgery. It was Suaba herself who made the decision. "I was scared," she says, "but I wanted to stand up straight, so I decided to do it." After two years of waiting, in early 2003 Suaba and 10 other children received corrective surgery.
Habsu is amazed at Suaba's transformation. "She walks evenly now and does more to help," Habsu says. "She can sweep, pound the sauce ingredients, and go on errands for me. It's incredible!"
Suaba now goes to the Tibiri Children's Centre every day. She is enrolled in a literacy class, and she is learning to sew, embroider and knit. "She will go to school as long as she can," says Habsu, "and whenever she finishes, hopefully she will be able to go into business for herself."
