Sanyu is a farmer and a mother of eight children. Her oldest three daughters are married and the rest are still in school. Sanyu is a widow, whose husband died in 2015, but with farming, she has been able to raise her children and sustain a living. Sanyu and her family live in a three-room, unfinished, semi-permanent house, which her husband was building at the time he passed. Eight years ago, Sanyu began to experience troubling symptoms, including heart palpitations, persistent headaches, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing. 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 Sanyu receive treatment. She is scheduled to undergo a thyroidectomy on February 10th at our medical partner's care center. Surgeons will remove all or part of her thyroid gland. This procedure will cost $252, and she and her family need help raising money. Sanyu says “This is my only hope of getting better. My hope is in your support; without it, I have no other way of undergoing my surgery.”

Ma Tin is a 41-year-old mother from Burma. She lives with her husband and three sons in Karen State - an area with conflict and lots of uncertainty and insecurity for the people who live there. Her husband is a day laborer and her three sons are students. Ma Tin is a homemaker but she also sells vegetables sometimes to earn extra money. Her husband's income is usually enough to cover their basic needs, but they sometimes rely on financial support of their adult children. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her children. She is currently expecting a baby and her doctors recommend that she deliver via a caesarean section because she started to leak amniotic fluid at 32 weeks. On April 3rd, she experienced pain and the doctor scheduled her to undergo an emergency c-section to ensure the safety of both mother and child. Our medical partner, Burma Children Medical Fund, is helping Ma Tin undergo a C-Section on April 4th at Taw Win Thu Kha Hospital. This procedure will cost $1328, and Ma Tin needs your support. Ma Tin said, "When I learned that I would need a c-section, I lost hope. I thought about giving birth at home and if I were lucky, I would be able to give birth like before [without complications]. If not, I would die. Now that I was told that there would be donors to help pay for my c-section, I felt so happy. You are a miracle that appeared in my life to help me when I needed it with the cost of my surgery. Thank you so much to all the staff and donors who are willing to help me."

Christian is a two year old toddler, living with his parents in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is a happy and playful child, who particularly enjoys listening to music. Christian has a cardiac condition called severe coarctation of the aorta. As a result of this condition, there is a narrowing in the major blood vessel leading from his heart, which causes his heart to strain too hard to push blood through it. The care he needs is not available anywhere in the country, so Christian needs to travel to the Cayman Islands to receive treatment. On April 4th, he will undergo open heart surgery, during which doctors will rebuild his aorta, restoring it to a more normal size. Another organization, Have a Heart Cayman, is contributing $16,000 to pay for this procedure. However, Christian's family also needs help to fund the $1,500 to cover the costs of pre-surgery prep, lab tests, medicines, and follow up appointments. This money will also pay for passport obtainment, and the social workers from our medical partner, Haiti Cardiac Alliance, who will accompany Christian's family overseas. Christian's mother said: "Our family is hopeful that everything will go well with our son's surgery, and that he will have a safe and smooth recovery."