Suzan is a cute, three-year-old girl from Tanzania. Suzan was born without any deformities, but since last year, her parents noticed their daughter’s gait slowly but surely changing. She now knocks her knees when walking and she sometimes complains of feeling pain on the knees especially after walking a long distance.
Suzan is the third born in a family of four children. She is in kindergarten, and when at school she enjoys singing. She is very talkative and likes all sorts of games—running around, jumping, crawling under the bed and tiny places, and throwing balls especially in the company of other children. After each hospital visit where Suzan needed an injection, later on she would tell her father that one day she would also like to be injecting people in hospitals.
Suzan’s parents are livestock keepers and they also do a little bit of farming. They earn enough to support their family’s basic needs, but the cost of their daughter’s surgery, $940, is too high for them to afford. Suzan needs corrective surgery to allow better gait and reduce the risk of developing osteoarthritis at a young age.
Her father says, “I hope my daughter will regain her ability to walk normally so that she can continue with school and later become a doctor.”