“I just want to see my daughter laugh and play again,” shares Shallon’s mother.
Shallon, an 18-month-old baby girl from Uganda, has been sick for two months. She is extremely thin and weak, experiences diarrhea, and has lost her appetite. Her mother brought her to Bwindi Community Hospital, our medical partner’s care center, where she was diagnosed with malnutrition.
In addition to the immediate dangers that Shallon faces from a compromised immune system, she runs the long-term risks of compromised physical and cognitive development.
Before she fell ill, Shallon was a very different girl. She was a lively child who liked running and playing. She would mimic everything she saw her mother do, from rinsing dishes and washing her father’s hands to digging in the garden.
In order to restore her to this state of health and happiness, Shallon’s doctors need to provide her with emergency nutritional supplies, such as therapeutic milk and dextrose. On April 16, they will also run a number of lab tests to evaluate her body’s needs and to determine whether there are any additional causes for Shallon’s lack of appetite.
Shallon’s parents—who provide food for the family through subsistence farming and earn a small income making bricks and baskets to sell—do not have enough money to pay for their daughter’s medical care. But for $316, we can cover the costs of Shallon’s lab tests and nutritional supplies, as well as her ten-day stay at the hospital and transportation home.
Let’s make sure Shallon can once more become the energetic child that her parents remember.
“I am so grateful for the help,” says Shallon’s mother.