Monica OlinescuUNIVERSAL FUND MEMBER
Monica's Story

Monica joined Watsi on September 6th, 2013. Eight years ago, Monica joined our Universal Fund, supporting life-changing treatments for a new Watsi patient every month. Monica's most recent donation traveled 7,400 miles to support SamNeang, a 50-year-old Tuk Tuk driver from Cambodia, to fund spinal surgery.

Impact

Monica has funded healthcare for 110 patients in 14 countries.

patients you have funded

Meet Nafissa. She is a 25-year old woman who shared that she tends to be very shy and reserved. She lives with her parents and her young child in an area of Burkina Faso where conflict is currently impacting their lives deeply. When she was a child, Nafissa developed a painful growth on the left side of her chin. This swelling in her lower jawbone affected her ability to eat, and was determined to be a benign tumor that needed to be removed. Her parents were able to secure the funds to send Nafissa to a hospital in Togo, where she could be treated at no cost to her family. The growth was removed, and for several years, Nafissa did well. However, the growth recurred, and in the middle of last year, Nafissa returned to Togo, where the second growth was excised. This time, however, the surgeon determined that her whole jawbone would also need to be removed. As the doctor in Togo did not have the necessary training to perform the surgery that Nafissa needed, he referred her to a physician with our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare. Miraculously, Nafissa is now scheduled for a major jaw surgery with the leading team at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya. As Nafissa's husband abandoned her because of her condition, and provides no support to Nafissa or their child, Nafissa and her parents are looking to you to help fund the $1,500 procedure, which will finally relieve Nafissa of the pain and symptoms that result from the tumor. Nafissa says: “It pains me that I have to stay at home with no friends. Making it worse, I cannot work to provide for my child.”

$941raised
$559to go

Stephen is a young man from Kenya. He is the firstborn in a family of 3 children. Their family has relied on their mother to provide for them as his father passed away when he was young boy. His mother does deliveries for different shop owners around their town. Stephen had to drop out from college do to inability to pay his school fees, and he now helps around the house and helps his mother with the deliveries, which is the how the family makes ends meet. Stephen has been diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain and increases intracranial pressure. As a result of his condition, Stephen has been experiencing severe headaches since this past July. He visited a hospital where a CT scan was done that revealed that he had a cyst that was obstructing the normal flow of fluid in and out of the head. An urgent surgery was recommended to remove the cyst, but he did not undergo it due to not having the funds for the procedure. A shunt insertion surgery has been recommended along with a craniotomy that will be performed later to remove the cyst. Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, is requesting $720 to cover the cost of surgery for Stephen that will treat his hydrocephalus. The procedure is scheduled to take place on November 23rd and will drain the excess fluid from Stephen's brain. This will reduce intracranial pressure and greatly improve his quality of life. With proper treatment, Stephen will hopefully continue to develop into a strong, healthy man. Stephen says, “I really want to be treated so that I can help my mom provide for us.”

$720raised
Fully funded