CHILD WITH MONKEY-LIKE PHYSICAL FEATURES IN GORONTALO

Gorontalo, March 17 (ANTARA) - The child of a normal couple in a village in Bone Bolangi dsitrict has been leading a life like most children although it was born with the facial and other physical features of a monkey.

Septini Abdul (10) has a face resembling a monkey, especially the jawbones, nose, and ears, and a body all covered in hair.
The child's mother, Fatma, told reporters visiting the village on Monday Septini's condition was like that since birth. Septini's genitals were incomplete, the ears almost had no openings and there were no nipples on the breast.
Despite the physical abnormality, Septini who has two normal siblings was attending school normally and was now in the second grade of elementary school.
Fatma who works as a house-helper once took Septini to a doctor But the docter said after an examination, Septini had already been like that since birth and nothing could be done to change the condition. But Fatma still hoped that doctors could at least stop the hair growth on Septini's body.
In the meantime, Septini has grown up without anybody in the village community, including school-mates, trying to stigmatize or avoid the child so it was getting along normally with other people outside the family.
In school Septini was also considered a normal pupil. "Septini's brain capacity and understanding are the same as other students," said Elvin Adam, a teacher at Dumbaya Elementary School I, adding that Septini's school reports were often even better than average, especially in the subject of physical exercise.
But Septini admitted that "sometimes some of my fiends make fun of me but I have gotten used to it and don't get angry,"