Thi Ha is a good-natured six-year-old living in Burma. He loves playing games with his friends, but he's also dealing with a very serious situation.
Thi Ha has thalassemia, a blood disorder passed down through families that causes the body to make an abnormal form of hemoglobin (the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen). The disorder results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anemia and calls for frequent blood transfusions (difficult on a little guy like this).
Because thalassemia affects the body's ability to produce red blood cells, removing the spleen greatly improves the patient's condition because it increases hemoglobin in the body.
For $1,100, we can pay for Thi Ha to have a splenectomy. When asked about her son's future, Thi La's mother says she hopes her son will recover soon. She hopes he will become a monk when he grows up. Let's help this sweet kid live the life he was meant to!