Brightness is a joyful nine-year-old girl from Tanzania. She is one of five children in her family. Brightness enjoys learning in school. Recently, however, she has been unable to attend. Her condition, genu varus, makes it difficult for her to walk to school. Genu varus is a medical condition that causes an inward angulation of the bones in the leg. Brightness has undergone one corrective surgery already. Her doctors have suggested a second corrective surgery. Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, is requesting $940 to fund her x-rays, corrective surgery, medication, casting, physiotherapy, and hospital stay. Her surgery is scheduled for January 12. Brightness's mother says, "Currently, my child cannot go to school, so I hope that after surgery she will be able to return to school."

“Ran began having ear discharge from her left ear when she was 10 years old,” says our medical partner, Children’s Surgical Center (CSC). Ran is now an 18-year-old woman living in Cambodia, and her condition has led to further complications. CSC continues, “The recurrent discharge caused hearing loss and an infected perforation of the tympanic membrane (eardrum). Her left ear experiences pain and tinnitus as well.” After learning about CSC from another individual in her village, Ran traveled three hours with her mother to reach our partner. She is married without children, and she spends her days cleaning her home and helping her parents on their farm. Ran tells CSC, “It is difficult to communicate with other people and this makes me unhappy that I can’t hear clearly.” In order to combat her infection and improve her hearing, Ran will need a mastoidectomy, a surgery that will remove cells in the hollow, air-filled spaces in the skull behind the ear. This procedure is used to treat infection and eliminate discharge and pain. For $809, Ran can receive the surgery she requires. Her mother shares: “I hope after the operation is done my daughter’s ear discharge stops, and she can have better hearing.”