Esupat is a very sweet two-year-old girl from Tanzania. Her mother is a housewife and her father a janitor. Esupat's legs are deformed due to a condition known as genu valgus, a condition in which the knees angle in and touch one another when the legs are straightened. Due to her condition, Esupat experiences pain when walking and her legs have become progressively bent inward. Genu valgus is a condition common to the region due to the excessive flouride in the drinking water. Esupat loves to play with her friends and her siblings, but her condition makes it difficult to keep up with other children her age. Her father heard about our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF) through work. AMHF determined that Esupat is in need of corrective surgery and rehabilitation in order to allow her to walk properly. For $940, doctors will perform a procedure to straighten her knees and afterwards Esupat will participate in physical therapy to learn to walk again. Without this surgery, Esupat's gait may worsen and she will be very limited in where she can walk. Esupat is expected to make a full recovery and be able to play and keep up with other children her age. "I want my child to heal and study to become a nurse when she is older," says Esupat's mom.

Shawali was identified through the outreach program at Arusha Lutheran Christian Medical Centre (ALMC) when his mother presented him with a "problem with his feet." He has been diagnosed with bilateral club feet, which means that both of his feet are twisted out of shape or position. Shawali, a 20-month-old boy, is the fourth born child to subsistence farmers from Tanzania. Education is important to his parents, and his older siblings all attend school. Because his condition makes it difficult for him to walk properly, Shawali requires treatment to straighten them out and restore him to proper mobility. Shawali's parents need assistance to cover their son's $1,160 procedure. He will have plaster casts on his feet and then an operation to straighten them. After his operation, Shawali will recover at the Plaster House, which is a facility in Tanzania that houses and rehabilitates children after corrective surgery. It is expected that Shawali's feet will achieve full correction and that he will never know that he was born with the club foot condition. His mother tells us, "I hope that Shawali will look normal and go to school like his siblings."