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Sponsoring A Child For Surgery |
Sponsoring a child for spine surgery only costs $6,000. This same surgery in the USA would cost over $100,000. All FOCOS surgeons donate their time and skills for free. Your entire donation would go to local hospital costs including hospital stay, xrays, MRIs, CT scans, and blood work. All spine implants are donated.
Sponsoring a child makes a wonderful holiday gift. It notes that the donor is compassionate and will help those patients in need. Your gift changes our patients’ lives. They become more confident to meet life head on. Each recipient will write to you a thank you note. Each patient will know of your individual kindness.
May God Bless you for your benevolence.
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| Umu Sesay |
Umu Sesay, age seven, lives with her father in a small village in Sierra Leone. Umu gets much of her care from her aunt because her mother has passed away. Umu was discovered by a Sister who is a teacher with a Catholic missionary working in her area.
Umu manages to remain curious and somewhat cheerful despite the pain caused by her kyphosis. She has been receiving medical treatment for tuberculosis. We hope to have Umu surgically treated in Accra by a FOCOS team this June.
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| Sama Turay |
Sama Turay has been waiting for our help since July, 2005. She says her problem first started in 2001. First, she coughed overnight for about a month. Then, while sitting she heard two noises and, for no apparent reason, her spine broke. She developed bumps in two locations on her back. She has been bearing the pain ever since, taking aspirin and ibuprofen when we can provide it. She has completed an eight month regime of anti tuberculosis medications. Her need now is for surgical treatment by FOCOS.
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| Moses Conteh |
Moses Conteh, age 10, is from a town in the north of Sierra Leone where medical care has been very limited. Moses started to develop a scoliosis when he was three years old.
Moses’ life is already affected by his deformity, but if he does not receive surgical treatment soon, before his next growth spurt, he will become seriously deformed.
We hope to be able to send Moses to Accra for treatment by FOCOS this June.
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| Margaret Gbassay |
Margaret Gbassay, age 12, lives in a large town in the south of Sierra Leone. Her father is old and her mother is deceased. A Sierra Leonean woman who assists us at times has taken Margaret into her own household to see that she eats properly and receives her anti-tuberculosis medications. Margaret’s legs have already started to paralyze and she is incontinent at times. There is good reason to believe that this damage might be reversed if we can send Margaret to Accra for surgical treatment by FOCOS this June.
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Tabitha Agyeiwaa |
Bio Available Soon
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| Lucy Frimpomaa |
Bio Available Soon
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Liticia Acquah |
Bio Available Soon
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Osman Kanu, now about 17 years old, has difficulty walking having suffered with polio as a youngster. In addition, an extreme scoliosis of his spine greatly compounds Osman’s mobility problems. Osman lives with his elderly father and many brothers and sisters in a small farming village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Though his family is very poor, Osman likes to study and wants some day to become a medical doctor. Osman has been quietly, patiently waiting for surgical help for his spine since January, 2005.
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Hawa Bangura |
Hawa Bangura is now 10 years old. She lives with her parents and large extended family in a very small farming village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. By age eight, Hawa’s spine had fractured as a result of tuberculosis of the spine. Hawa soon lost the ability to walk as the TB infection exerted pressure onto her spinal cord. After eight months of medical treatment to rid her body of tuberculosis, Hawa regained the use of her legs. She can now play again with her siblings and cousins and even helps with some of the many chores. But Hawa’s spine has continued to collapse and her hunch has continued to become more prominent. Without surgical intervention to correct and stabilize her spine, Hawa is in danger of further collapse and a return of paralysis. Hawa’s mother and father are extremely concerned for the future of this daughter whom they love dearly.
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Hawa Kanu |
Hawa Kanu is now 14 years old. She is a spirited young lady who refuses to be treated as a cripple. She lives with her parents in a small village in Sierra Leone known for its farming of rice in the surrounding seasonal floodplains. Hawa works hard helping her mother with the food preparation and the cooking chores despite her spine having been fractured some years before as a result of a tuberculosis infection. Hawa has been fortunate not to have suffered nerve damage yet. But she remains in danger of further spinal collapse and paralysis, if she does not have the surgical treatment that she has been waiting for since January, 2005
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Gibril Kamara |
Gibril Kamara is a very brave ten-year old who lives with his parents in a camp for internally displaced persons outside of Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown. In the camp, which still remains six years after the end of the war and is turning into a village, everybody is extremely poor. Gibril’s spine was fractured in two locations as a result of tuberculosis infections. In pain but still able to walk, Gibril squeezed onto public transport to go and be X-rayed. He became attached to the bearded, white stranger who was his escort for a day and a half. His joy at receiving a small, toy soccer ball showed in his immense smile as he held it to his chest. One year later, after receiving eight months of anti-TB medications, Gibril can even run a bit. This ability to run was demonstrated as he attacked a group of school boys who were taunting our entourage of spinal patients for being "hunchbacks." Gibril needs to have his spine surgically mended and stabilized to ensure that he never looses his ability to walk and to run.
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Amiata Salif |
Aminatu Salif is a pretty 18 year-old with a ready smile. She lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone with her parents and siblings. Her disposition remains cheerful despite the fact that her spine has been fractured as a result of a tuberculosis infection and her posture has continued to deteriorate as her back has become more and more hunched. Aminatu has been waiting since January, 2005 for the surgical intervention needed to stabilize and straighten her spine and ensure that she never suffers spinal cord damage and paralysis.
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Emanuel Sankoh |
Emanuel Sankoh is now 19 years old. He came to us last year when he somehow heard that a spine surgeon from America was examining patients at the Sisters of Charity compound in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The surgeon from FOCOS determined that Emanuel was in need of surgery, as were many others he examined that day. One year later Emanuel had still not been selected or funded for surgery. In that time his condition has deteriorated alarmingly. Emanuel, who lives with his parents and brother in a shack on a steep hillside in Freetown, has lost much of his sense of balance and his ability to stand and walk securely. His spine has twisted and his back has bulged out severely to one side. Emanuel and his parents are desperately hoping that a surgery by FOCOS will relieve him of this scoliosis and its terrible symptoms soon
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Adema Bangura |
Adema Bangura lives with her mother and sisters in a poor section of urban sprawl along the main road into Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Adema is a healthy, happy 15 year-old, if one overlooks the large spinal deformity which disfigures her back. It is said to have started developing when she was only one year old. Adema hopes to have it surgically mended to relieve her pain. She hopes it can be straightened as much as possible to let her look and feel normal like the other girls her age. We hope all of this can happen so Adema will be safe from further deterioration and possible paralysis.
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