The appendicitis surgery of Mayowa Salami, a teenager who joined the June 12 Protest at Ojota after hawking bottled water, has been done. 

The surgery lasting six hours was done on Thursday following donations from The Destiny Trust Children Foundation and Funsho and Dayo Osunlana. 

Mayowa’s mother barely makes enough to feed and had planned to get a loan from a microfinance bank to pay for the surgery before FIJ’s story about her plight.

“His growth is stunted; he is actually 16 years. His education was also affected when his school told us to go and take care of his health. He was out of school for about three years. If not because he likes school, he would have stopped attending because of his age,” Mrs Salami had said in June.

READ ALSO: Hawking to Save for Surgery: The Boy Who Joined June 12 Protest

After the surgery, Mrs Salami told FIJ: “I am grateful to them and I am happy. If not for the assistance, I would still have been struggling to raise the moneyfor his surgery. For years, I had been praying to God for a helper.”

As part of its accelerated education school for overaged children, school enrolment and back-to-school campaigns aimed at supporting 1000 children across Nigeria who have no hope of good care or education, The Destiny Trust Children Foundation pledged to support Mayowa’s education. 

The Salamis lives in a shack at Ojota but had received evacuation notice from the Lagos State Government. 

“One day, it rained overnight; I packed so much water that I fainted,” Mrs Salami said during FIJ’s visit to the wooden shack where she lived after giving up an opportunity to get a decent apartment with a N200,000 loan she obtained to pay the fees of her child who was admitted into a univeristy in Lagos.