“I love working on my small farm. It is the source of meals for me and my husband. I have had to get someone to help on it and this is not an expense that I can afford. I want to be well enough to work on it myself again.” Meet Mary, a 67-year-old mother of seven from Kenya. According to our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), “Mary has suffered from stomach pain for almost ten years. She is in constant discomfort around her abdomen and this has made it difficult for her to work on her farm.” Her pain and discomfort occurs as a result of symptomatic cholelithiasis, a condition that involves the presence of gallstones in the biliary tract. If her condition goes untreated, “Mary will continue experiencing pain and may suffer jaundice, rapid heartbeat and abrupt blood pressure drop. The gallstones could also lead to infection and inflammation of the gallbladder.” The fact that Mary’s gallstones are symptomatic calls for surgical intervention. Mary’s family is subsidizing the treatment with $220 of their own funds, and with another $620, we can help fund a curative laparotomy—a surgical incision into the abdominal cavity to remove the gallstones. AMHF expects Mary’s discomfort and pain to end after her surgery and subsequent recovery.

“Hassan has been experiencing on and off scrotal swelling,” says our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF). “He has recently started to cry when urinating.” Four-month-old Hassan lives with his mother and grandmother in Tanzania. He has a hernia, a condition in which pressure pushes part of his intestines through an opening, or weak spot, between his abdomen and scrotum. “If not treated,” says AMHF, “it may cause intestinal obstruction and endanger Hassan’s life.” Hassan’s mother works on a farm to earn money to take of her son, but she does not earn enough to pay for the surgery that Hassan needs. $610 will pay for surgery in which doctors suture the herniated tissue back in place. Funding for Hassan’s treatment also includes three days of post-operative hospital care and a one-week stay at The Plaster House, a home where children from all over Tanzania can recover after surgery. “I hope my son will get better. I wish to see him grow up like other children, go to school and live an independent life when he grows up,” says Hassan’s mother.