Angel has a beautiful smile, when she decides to show it! She just celebrated her first birthday, as she was born on August 11th, 2015. Angel is able to sit on her own and likes playing with soft toys and being around other children. She is the second-born child in her family, and they live together in Tanzania.
Angel was born without any problems and was developing normally. However, she contracted a severe fever when she turned five months old. She was admitted at a local hospital and subsequently treated.
After her daughter’s recovery, Angel’s mother continued to care for her baby as usual. She began to notice that the size of Angel’s head was slowly increasing. One day, she became extremely nervous when she realized that Angel’s big sister’s hat would not fit on Angel’s head! She took her daughter back to the hospital.
After a thorough examination, Angel was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the brain and exerts pressure.
Angel received surgery to install a shunt– a device that will drain fluid from the brain to another part of the body. This procedure will prevent further intracranial pressure, which could otherwise have affected her eyesight.
Angel’s mother is a self-employed tailor and her father is a small-scale farmer who primarily grows tomatoes. They have built their own two-bedroom mud house and are trying their best to care for their children. The $775 cost of Angel’s surgery is just too high for them to afford.
Let’s help fund Angel’s procedure, which includes a five day hospital stay and a two week stay at the Plaster House, a facility that houses and rehabilitates children who have undergone correctional surgeries.
“I hope my baby will get well and continue to grow up like other children,” says Angel’s mother. “I’ll be happy to see her walking.”