Tindiwegi is a 60-year-old farmer from Uganda. She is a widow and a mother to eight children. Six of whom are married and earn a living through small-scale farming, but the other two are still in school. She lost her husband twenty years ago, leaving her to raise their children alone. Luckily enough, he left her with a banana and coffee plantation from where she generated an income to provide for her family. She at times grows beans, maize, and groundnuts on the other side of the land for their family to eat and often sells off the surplus to pay for school fees for her two schooling children.
Tindiwegi presented with anterior neck swelling and she has suffered with this over ten years now. Tindiwegi began to experience troubling symptoms, including pain, difficulty swallowing, and a persistent cough. She was diagnosed with a goiter, an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland. She needs surgery to prevent her symptoms from getting worse.
Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, is helping Tindiwegi receive treatment. She is scheduled to undergo a thyroidectomy on May 12th at our medical partner’s care center. Surgeons will remove all or part of her thyroid gland. This procedure will cost $264, and she and her family need help raising money.
Tindiwegi says, “I hope that I will get well and be able to continue with cultivation after I have completely recovered from this condition.”