“Hassan has been experiencing on and off scrotal swelling,” says our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMHF). “He has recently started to cry when urinating.”
Four-month-old Hassan lives with his mother and grandmother in Tanzania. He has a hernia, a condition in which pressure pushes part of his intestines through an opening, or weak spot, between his abdomen and scrotum. “If not treated,” says AMHF, “it may cause intestinal obstruction and endanger Hassan’s life.”
Hassan’s mother works on a farm to earn money to take of her son, but she does not earn enough to pay for the surgery that Hassan needs.
$610 will pay for surgery in which doctors suture the herniated tissue back in place. Funding for Hassan’s treatment also includes three days of post-operative hospital care and a one-week stay at The Plaster House, a home where children from all over Tanzania can recover after surgery.
“I hope my son will get better. I wish to see him grow up like other children, go to school and live an independent life when he grows up,” says Hassan’s mother.