Ahmedin, aged 12 years



'I am not afraid. I hope the doctors make the correction successfully - I hope they make it look nice afterwards!
I am happy and looking forward to things."

Ahmedin was playing outside his family home when he was attacked by a hyena. The bite wounds ripped his mouth and cheek and made a deep hole in his forehead but the 12-year-old managed to escape the fully-grown animal, who was desperate with hunger and thirst.

Despite the pain of the surprise attack, Ahmedin says that the worst part of his ordeal was the other children in the village excluding him from playing and calling him ‘hyena’s leftovers’.

Ahmedin received treatment by British plastic surgeons in October 2007. He will always carry some scarring but he now has a fully formed mouth and the puncture to his forehead has been successfully mended.