Meet Elito! He is a one-year-old baby boy from Haiti, where he lives with his twin sister and caring parents. Elito’s mother is a dressmaker and his father is a taxi driver, both working hard to provide for their family's basic needs. Elito has hydrocephalus, causing enlarged head size, intra-cranial pressure, and “sun-setting” eyes. “Elito is sick, sometimes vomiting and experiencing fever and flu-like symptoms. I feel very bad because my baby is sick,” explains Elito’s mother. Elito is in danger of losing his vision due to intra cranial pressure, and if not treated, his condition will likely be fatal. To prevent blindness and brain damage, Elito needs a shunt incision, a $1,260 procedure his family cannot afford. The surgery will help prevent further accumulation of excess cerebral-spinal fluid in Elito’s brain. “The treatment will increase the chances of Elito to live a healthy life and give his family the hope for a better future for him,” explain our medical partners at Project Medishare.

Daniel, born only 11 days ago in Kenya, lives with his parents and older sibling. Daniel's father works as a carpenter to support his family, and his mother tends to the crops they grow on a small plot of land. Daniel was born with spina bifida, an incomplete closing of the spinal column, leaving him with an open mass on his back. Left untreated, he is likely to develop various infections, malformations of the spine, and continued discomfort. Daniel's mother hopes to see her son receive the help he needs, as she says that all she wants "is to see my son well. I want to see Daniel live a healthy life like my other child.” For $980, we can provide Daniel with a surgery that would close the spina bifida and greatly reduce his chances of developing scoliosis and infection. Let us provide Daniel the opportunity at the healthy childhood that his family dreams of!