Five-year-old Modern lives with his mother and five siblings in a Ugandan village, 40 kilometers away from the hospital. “[Modern’s] mother and father are separated, making it difficult for the mother to support the children,” our medical partner, the Kellermann Foundation, tells us. “She does some farming of sweet potatoes and beans and also digs crops for others.” Modern has acute malnutrition. The Kellermann Foundation explains that Modern’s condition, “severely [affects] his energy level and [causes] edema and skin sores.” Nutrition plays a fundamental role in normal childhood development. Without a healthy diet, Modern’s condition makes him susceptible to a weakened immune system alongside stunted mental and physical growth. For $375, Modern can receive treatment to overcome his acute malnutrition. Nutrient-rich therapeutic milk will be added into his diet to stabilize his nutrition levels. This intervention will reduce the effects of his malnutrition and edema, enabling Modern to grow normally. To help subsidize his treatment, Modern’s mother contributed $1 to the total treatment cost. After recovering, Modern will be able to return to kindergarten where he enjoys playing soccer and crafting things out of paper to share with the other children in his class.

“Dominic is our only son and we wish for him to have straight legs, strong bones and the ability to walk properly so that he can walk to school when the time comes,” says Dominic’s father. Meet Dominic, a three-year-old boy from Tanzania who has bilateral genu varum, a bow-legged condition that can lead to osteoarthritis. “Dominic wiggles when walking and he falls down easily when playing with other children. The deformity is limiting his ability to walk properly and energetically involve himself in playing games,” reports our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF). “At home, Dominic likes to sit down and play with tins and cars and sometimes he will try to run around with other children,” continues AMHF. He enjoys the company of other children and would like to play with them unaffected by his condition. Dominic’s parents are both maize farmers. “The little they get from farming is not enough to cover their daily needs as well as pay for the corrective surgery which Dominic needs,” says AMHF. For $940, we can fund surgery to straighten Dominic’s legs so that he will have normal mobility as he grows up. AMHF concludes that after the procedure, “Dominic will have straight legs, a better gait, and reduced risk of developing osteoarthritis at an early age.”