Clementina is a ten-year-old student and the youngest in a family of four children. She is a loving girl who enjoys playing with babies, especially her neighbours’. Her mother says she would wake up in the morning and ask right away for permission to go see her neighbour’s baby. She is also a hard-working girl. She helps her mother clean the house and cleaning dishes. She cleans her own clothes too sometimes.
Clementina was born with spina bifida, a type of neural tube defect in which the spine does not properly close around the spinal cord. Without treatment, Clementina is at risk of lower-limb paralysis, infection of the exposed nervous tissue, development of tethered cord syndrome, and possible developmental delays.
Our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare Foundation (AMH), is requesting $1,015 to cover the cost of Clementina’s spina bifida closure surgery. The procedure is scheduled to take place on August 9th. This procedure will hopefully spare Clementina from the risks associated with her condition, instead allowing her to grow and develop along a healthy trajectory.
Clementina’s mother says, “We never knew the condition needed treatment all these years. But we are thankful that she is able to stand and walk. She has been scheduled for surgery but the cost is too high for us to afford please help.”
