Scots win long fight to get African boy born without ears gift of hearing after operation

But the youngster known as 'wee Alieu', whose family cannot afford medical treatment, had his hopes initially dashed when a sanction to enter the country was blocked.

Now after a long process the Lanarkshire-based Project Gambia: People Feeding People, which provides clothes, food and hearing aids to St John’s School for the Deaf in the west African country, is celebrating a successful operation.

It comes after the charity won a battle to get a short stay medical visa to bring the boy to Scotland to be treated by experts - that involved handing over copies of the title deeds of one of the charity founder's homes.

"This is the biggest and best thing we have done in our history, as far as I am concerned," said charity co-founder Frank Devine. "It's crazy good. When we started this charity we would not have thought in a million years we would do something like this."

The youngster was born without external ears, but his inner ears work perfectly, and it was felt that the bone anchored hearing implants will allow him to hear properly.

A hearing aid sent by the charity let him have 10% hearing - but now the charity believes he will give him hearing that will transform his life.

At the moment Alieu can only just register the sound of a vacuum cleaner up close at 70 decibels, and the procedure would allow him to hear someone breathing at 10 decibels. The surgery to fit the implants began on Tuesday and was carried out by Specialist ENT surgeon Mr Arunachalam Perumkulam Iyer and his team on a voluntary basis, after they have finished their shifts. And the £2000 needed to fly the boy into Scotland, came through the charity's fund-raising efforts.

The boy is currently convalescing at the Bellshill home of charity co-founder Paul Lafferty who flew out to The Gambia to return to Scotland with Alieu, who is now a awaiting follow-up check-up later in the week. “The wee man's hearing has improved already but we're expecting it to improve even more in the coming days,” said Mr Devine.

"He wasn't really able to speak English. He was speaking a tribal language and the first words he said after the operation was "Celtic", because he had been coaching him. And he was able to say our names."

For the charity it is near the end of a long battle with bureaucracy which co-founder Frank Devine said was "absolutely horrendous".

To seal the visa, Mr Devine personally handed over a series of documents to UK Visa and Immigration Control in the Serekunda area of Gambia.

He said they included copies of the title deeds to Mr Lafferty's home and his passport, even the bank statements of the charity. There was also a medical letter from Mr Iyer and a consent note from the boy's parents.

"There was up to 30 pieces of paperwork submitted," said Mr Devine. "The title deeds were needed as some kind of guarantee the boy went back to the Gambia. I went out there as a goodwill gesture on our part to make sure the wee boy got the visa.

"When we got knocked back last year, we got immigration lawyers involved, and they made sure that all the paperwork was bang on. Don't forget this was a big thing for the family to let the boy go for two months. But it's all worth it."

Looking further forward Mr Devine has said they would talk to doctors about the possibility of creating ears for him.

To celebrate the operation and his night birthday, the charity is organising him a party at 7pm on Saturday, March 16, in Holy Family Parish, Mossend.

And on Sunday he will be a a special guest in the directors' box at Parkhead for Celtic's Scottish Cup match against St Johnstone.

Mr Devine, along with Mr Lafferty, Charlie Docherty and Lynne Hamilton Gillies, began the project seven years ago to donate school uniforms, bags, IT equipment, sportswear, footwear and clothing to children living in poor conditions. They have even sent over hundreds of Celtic strips.