Wyndel is a six-year-old boy from the Philippines who loves to play with the children in his neighborhood. Wyndel was recently diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, a condition that results from consuming too few calories, proteins, and nutrients. Due to his condition, Wyndel has a weakened immune system, which increases his likelihood of becoming sick. Beginning on July 12, Wyndel will receive at-home malnutrition treatment through our medical partner, International Care Ministries (ICM). ICM will provide Wyndel with nutrient enriched food packs to help him gain weight and achieve optimal physical and mental development. The program will also teach his family about proper nutrition, sanitation, and organic gardening to better care for their son. ICM is requesting $261 to cover the cost of Wyndel's ongoing care. "I hope Wyndel recovers from malnutrition and finishes his studies someday," his mother says.

Mirlande is a 50-year-old woman who is from a commune in Haiti and resides there with her husband. She enjoys going to church and participates in the activities put on by her church regularly. To support herself, Mirlande has always sold alimentary products as a street merchant. In April 2016, Mirlande started to feel pain in her right arm that eventually moved to the top of her chest. She immediately went to the hospital. She was referred to another facility in Port-au-Prince, the capital, to have a sonogram and mammogram. Nothing abnormal was found in her breast. For three months, Mirlande had exams and multiple follow-up visits but she never received any results about the mass. After a lot of frustration and money spent, she finally went to a private doctor, where she was officially diagnosed with breast cancer and was referred to our medical partner's care center. In January, she started her chemotherapy, a treatment that decreases the cancerous cells in the body. After four sessions of chemotherapy, Mirlande will be having a mastectomy on August 4. Our medical partner, Innovating Health International, is requesting $1,085 to fund her care. She says, “We are human and we do get sick but you have to take care of yourself and be strong.”

Meet Karl, a three-year-old boy from Haiti. Karl lives with his mother, father, and older brother. “His father repairs automobiles and his mother stays at home," shares our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance (HCA). "He is a shy child, but likes to play with his brother and help his parents at home.” “Karl was born with a cardiac condition called pulmonic stenosis, in which the valve leading from his heart to his lungs is unusually narrow," explains HCA. "As result, blood had difficulty reaching his lungs, and backs up into his heart, leading to heart failure. If untreated, this condition could be fatal.” For $1,500, we can fund a treatment that will restore normal blood flow to Karl’s heart, and allow him to live a normal life. This amount funds overseas preparation and transportation, as HCA secures overseas heart surgeries for procedures that are not easily accessible in Haiti. The treatment is subsidized by a $10,000 donation from Safra Children’s Hospital. Karl's mother shares, “We are hopeful that Karl will be healthy after his surgery so that he can start going to preschool with the other children.”

Dolores is a 41-year-old woman from the Philippines who is having trouble breathing because of an enlarged thyroid. The thyroid has progressively grown larger over the past ten years, and it is starting to compress her upper airway. “I am experiencing tightness and difficulty breathing," she says. "I cannot do even small things for my family. I am ashamed to mingle with my neighbors and friends because of my situation.” Dolores lives with her husband and large, loving family of children who range in age from 2 to 18 years. The treatment Dolores needs will cost $460. The thyroidectomy will remove the mass, allowing Dolores to breath freely and resume a normal life.

Meet Pauline, a 42-year-old Kenyan woman who is battling hypertension, increased pulse rate and weight loss as a result of a toxic goiter. If left untreated, Pauline’s doctors say her symptoms will worsen to the point that she will not be able to eat, leading to malnutrition and eventually, a premature death. Pauline at one time was healthy enough to work, and supported her mother and sister. When her conditioned worsened, she was forced to stop working. She moved in with her mother who now supports Pauline and her sister by selling vegetables. Pauline shares, “My age does not allow me to still live with my mother when I should be the one supporting her. It pains me to see her struggle this way. I long to get back to work and support my mother and sister like I used to." We are raising $750 so that Pauline may receive the thyroid surgery she needs to recover. Donating now will ensure that she will regain her independence and can continue to support her family!

Samuel is a resilient 33-year-old man who remains in good spirits and has a generous heart despite his medical condition. As a newborn he had hydrocephalus, a potentially life-threatening condition of excess fluid in the brain, but survived and grew up to do fairly well. A few months ago, Samuel started to experience severe headaches and seizures. He was diagnosed with a mucocele (a mucus-containing cystic lesion) in his brain. If left untreated, Samuel will continue to have severe symptoms which can lead to premature death. Samuel currently lives with his mother in a small village. She has been the rock of their family, supporting him and his five siblings single-handedly after the death of their father years ago. The income she makes from her small vegetable farm combined with Samuel’s wages from working as a casual laborer are still not enough to cover the medical care he needs. The craniotomy needed to remove the mucocele from Samuel’s brain costs $1,500. The doctors expect this will relieve his symptoms and help him live a long and healthy life. “I would love to open a kiosk when I get better. Then I could help my mother,” says Samuel. Let’s make this happen for him!

Daniel is a 15-year-old boy from Haiti with throat cancer. Before the tumor emerged on his neck, Daniel loved going to school and playing soccer and marbles with his friends. When his tumor got large enough, Daniel dropped out of school because he was embarrassed. Now, he is too weak to attend school. He is losing weight because he can't eat normally with the painful tumor in his neck. He also coughs constantly and has trouble hearing. "Daniel needs help to get over this illness," his mother says. "I want him to go back to school to learn to read because I didn't have the chance to do that." With our support, Daniel and his mother will leave his six older sisters behind and, with the help of Project Medishare, travel to the Dominican Republic to seek treatment. The cost of treatment includes their passports and visas, transportation, expenses of radiation therapy, and food and a place to stay for the duration of Daniel's treatment.