Meet Maria, a 46-year-old woman who lives in Kenya. “Maria has been a house help in the same household for almost 25 years, and she is originally from Tanzania,” says our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF). “Maria has a lump in her right breast. She first felt a lump in her breast last year and went to a local public hospital. After testing, Maria was informed that the lump is benign and it was removed. Early this year, she felt a lump again in the same breast,” AMHF explains. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer and needs a mastectomy to remove the cancerous part of her breast. “We expect that after the surgery and subsequent chemo and radio therapy, Maria will no longer have recurring lumps," AMHF says. “Maria has never been married and is a proud mother of a playful three-year-old boy. Maria's aged parents are small-scale farmers back in Tanzania and are barely able to fend for themselves, and all her siblings are married and raising their own families. Maria goes back home once or twice a year to visit her family,” AMHF explains. "One day I will go back home and start a business that will enable me support my son,” says Maria. A mastectomy will cost $740. AMHF reports, “Maria is not able to raise the funds for her treatment and up to this point, her employer has been catering for all her medical bills. Maria's employer is not able to raise the funds needed for Maria's surgery.” Let's help Maria be cancer-free so she can continue to work and care for her son.

Meet Lalanne, a one-year-old girl living in Haiti. Born with a cleft palate, Lalanne has difficulties eating and drinking. For a growing kid, this poses major development problems. Lalanne’s mother is from the Haitian countryside, and provides for her three children on her own. She is determined to take care of her family and wants to make life good for Lalanne, but she's already done all she can afford to help her daughter overcome this condition and grow up healthy. Lalanne already underwent one round of repair surgery, but needs one more procedure to fix her cleft palate so she can use her lips correctly. For $960, we can make the simple, daily tasks of eating and drinking better for Lalanne.

Webby was nine years old when his parents passed away. Zambia, where Webby lives, has been rocked by a heartbreaking phenomenon in which more than a million of its children have lost their parents to AIDS and other causes. Sometimes, children are informally adopted by other families. Other times, they become unnaturally early heads of household. When Webby’s parents died, his uncle Emmanuel took him in. Emmanuel soon became worried about Webby’s leg, which was growing at an angle that made it nearly impossible for him to walk properly. They sought treatment, and actually arranged for Webby to have surgery, but his leg didn’t heal properly. Now, Webby needs one final surgery to repair his leg for good. Surgeons at CURE Zambia are confident that this treatment will give Webby the mobility he needs to live a normal life. We hope to raise the $1000 needed to cover the cost of Webby’s care and help him get on track towards a positive future.

In the email introducing us to her, our Medical Partner says, “Angel is as her name suggests, an angel, beautiful and bright eyed.” Angel has a big personality. She lives with her mother and her two siblings, and she says she wants to be a tailor when she grows up. Angel’s bright future is threatened, however, by an awful accident. When Angel was eight months old, her mother left her with her father while she went out to buy ingredients for dinner. Angel’s father wasn’t paying attention, and while Angel was playing, a kerosene lamp fell on her bed. Angel’s mother came home to find her young daughter’s feet on fire. She immediately covered them in a blanket and rushed her to the hospital, where Angel received first aid. However, her mother couldn’t afford any medical care beyond what she had already received. Five years later, simply because she was born into a community where the average income is less than $2 a day and she was unable to access proper medical care, Angel's burns have developed into scar contractures that make it impossible for her to walk. Doctors at African Mission Healthcare Foundation believe that with contracture release surgery, Angel will regain normal use of her feet. We need to raise the $1500 it will take to cover the cost of Angel’s surgery so that, despite this accident, she is able to live a normal life.

Twelve-year-old Joy has been through a lot in her short life. She contracted meningitis when she was two years old, and it spread to her brain. She went into a coma for three days, and her parents struggled to scape together enough money to keep their young daughter alive. When she woke up, Joy was completely paralyzed and unable to talk. Incredibly, in the last ten years, Joy has remained positive and driven despite her challenges. Through grueling hard work and perseverance, she has slowly regained the use of her muscles. Over time, Joy has even recovered her ability to speak. The one thing that Joy has been unable to overcome in the last ten years is her inability to walk. While she’s made great progress in strengthening her muscles, years of paralysis left Joy’s feet deformed, making it extremely painful for her to put weight on them. Joy’s family exhausted itself financially to save her life from meningitis. In a community where the average person makes less than $2 a day, even the most basic medical care is often ridiculously far out of reach, let alone the kind of specialized surgery that Joy needs to fully overcome the challenges she’s endured. Joy has spent the majority of her life working towards normalcy, and we have a chance to help make it happen for her. We need to raise $1000 to cover the cost of Joy’s surgery at CURE International. With treatment, her doctors believe she will be able to walk pain-free and one day live a normal life.