“Yese is eager to start going to school but his condition won’t let him,” his mother shares.
Meet Yese, a happy six-year-old who lives with his parents and three siblings in Tanzania. Yese has hydrocephalus—a condition in which a buildup of fluid within the brain leads to an increase in intracranial pressure, causing swelling of the head.
Yese was born without any health problems, but this onset condition has affected his vision and mobility. If his hydrocephalus goes untreated, it could lead to brain damage and premature death.
Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF), tells us that Yese “was growing well, he even started to crawl, but close to a year, the size of his head started to increase,” and he stopped crawling and walking. Yese appeared to be recovering by the time he was three years old, but now at age six his symptoms have worsened and AMHF reports, “He cannot walk without support and his vision is blurring.”
“Yese is a good storyteller and enjoys singing and listening to the radio,” AMHF shares. Yese’s parents work hard—his mother sells avocados at a local market and his father makes and sells pottery—but their joint income is not enough to support their other children and Yese’s medical bills.
With $775 in funding, Yese will undergo surgery to drain the excess fluid from his brain and alleviate the built-up intracranial pressure. Doctors will insert a shunt into Yese’s brain that will redirect the fluid to his abdominal cavity where it can be reabsorbed. This operation will reverse Yese’s symptoms—his vision will return so that he can walk well again.
“I hope my son will regain his vision and ability to walk so that he can go to school like other children,” his mother adds.
