Deodanta is a 77-year-old mother from Uganda. She has nine children, but has sadly lost two. In 2013, she also sadly lost her husband. She lives in a four-room mud house, and her children range in age from 32 to 51 years old. Deodanta practices small-scale farming for a living. When she was about 20 years old, Deodanta began to experience troubling symptoms, including pain in her neck. When she gave birth, she developed a small painless swelling in her neck. Over time, her condition worsened, as the swelling grew in size and became painful. Now, most of the time, she experiences headaches and she can no longer hear properly. She also gets fatigued easily and has difficulty breathing when sleeping. She has had to stop farming due to her condition. Deodanta has been diagnosed with a non-toxic multinodular goiter, and requires surgery to prevent her symptoms from worsening. Fortunately, our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare (AMH), is helping Deodanta receive treatment. On January 6th, she will undergo a thyroidectomy at AMH's care center, where surgeons will remove all or part of her thyroid gland. Now, she and her family need help raising $333 to fund her procedure and care. Deodanta shared, “I hope and pray that I may get well through surgery so that I may be able to take care of myself. I hope to be able to supervise my crop fields after complete recovery.”

Ashin Mala is a 30-year-old monk who lives in a monastery in Karen State, Burma. He became a monk a year ago. As a monk, Ashin usually doesn’t have the right to save money and keep cash. But sometimes, worshippers donate some money, and he keeps it to use just in case. The monastery usually provides him two meals a day donated by the Buddhist followers. In October, one day, he visited a house of a member of ethnic armed group in the village. A kid was playing with a pistol and accidentally shot the gun in the wall. Unfortunately, the bullet ricocheted and hit his left eye. The villagers sent Ashin Mala to Myawaddy General Hospital immediately. At the hospital, an X-ray was done and showed that a piece of the bullet had entered below his right eyeball. The doctors stitched the gunshot wound and gave some medications. There was no ophthalmologist at hospital. Ashin visited the hospital regularly and got wound dressing as well as medication to relieve pain. But the pain didn’t go away. He has lost sight in his left eye. Pain and itchiness, and sometimes a burning sensation, is present in the right eye and surrounding area. Hot tears are coming out from both eyes during blinking occasionally whenever he reads book for a long time. Due to the lack of ophthalmologist, he was provided only with medications and eyedrops. Now doctors want Ashin Mala to undergo a CT scan, a procedure in which x-ray images taken from several angles are combined to produce cross-sectional images of the body. This scan will hopefully help doctors diagnose his condition and formulate an appropriate treatment plan. Our medical partner, Burma Children Medical Fund, is requesting $414 to cover the cost of Ashin Mala's CT scan and care, scheduled for December 9th. Ashin Mala said, "I don’t want to blame anyone. It is my destiny. I am not sure my condition can be treated or not. But I am so happy to be treated here because I think I can have better health care here than in Burma. I don’t expect complete recovery, but it will be great if I can see with both eyes. In the future, I want to learn more about Dhamma and hope to attend Buddha University in the future."

Chan Monny is a 32-year-old monk from Battambang province. He has been a monk since he was 17 years old, and lives with his mother at the pagoda. When he was two years old, Chan Monny developed an ear infection. This infection caused the tympanic membrane, or the ear drum, in his right ear to perforate. For this reason, Chan Monny still experiences ear discharge, tinnitus, pain, and headaches. It is difficult to communicate with other people, and he shared that he feels embarrassed because he often doesn't understand people when they ask him for a blessing. For several years he tried purchasing medicine from a local pharmacy, but he never found anything that could alleviate his symptoms. Chan Monny sought help from our medical partner, Children's Surgical Centre, and is now scheduled to undergo a myringoplasty on December 21st, at Kien Khleang National Rehabilitation Centre. During this procedure, surgeons will close the perforation in Chan Monny's ear, which should allow him to hear more clearly and to no longer suffer from any of the other symptoms he has been living with. Children's Surgical Centre is requesting $487 to fund this procedure. This money will cover all the medications, supplies, and inpatient care for Chan Monny. Chan Monny said: "I hope after the operation my ear will get better, my hearing will improve, and I will have no more infections to worry about."