Christmas Appeal
Can you help us fund an operation for Lydia?
Lydia needs an operation and ongoing medical treatment or she may lose the use of her leg.
Lydia experiences chronic pain due to her severe sickle cell anaemia which has affected her leg. Your donation will help provide the operation and the ongoing medical care she needs.
Can you help us fund an operation for Lydia?
We are trying to raise £2,500 for an operation and ongoing medical treatment for this lovely, hardworking 13-year-old girl called Lydia, who lives in abject poverty in western Kenya with her loving mum and siblings. Sadly, Lydia's father died some years ago.
Our hearts went out to Lydia and her mum when we first heard about her. Life is hard enough living in abject poverty as a single orphan, but to have sickle cell anaemia really is tough. It causes Lydia episodes of pain and makes her more susceptible to illness, including the problem she has with her leg.
To make matters worse, Lydia's mum recently broke her leg and caught pneumonia at the same time, making it difficult to stay on top of her small crop-growing business.
She is doing very well but her illness does impede her, especially during the week-long episodes of pain. With your prayers and support, we hope to ensure she has the operation she needs on her leg; and that she has access to medicines in the long run to make life more bearable for her.
You can help us change Lydia's life by giving to our appeal.
Lydia is part of our ‘Simba Scholars’ programme in the Nyamarambe region in western Kenya, which provides education funding and support for some of the area’s poorest and most vulnerable children.
Through the provision of scholarships, this excellent programme enables 70 extremely vulnerable children to break the poverty cycle by helping fund support for their education. It also impacts their families and wider communities.
About Sickle Cell Anaemia
Sickle cell disease is the name for a group of inherited health conditions that affect the red blood cells. The most serious type is called sickle cell anaemia. It is a serious and lifelong health condition, although treatment can help manage many of the symptoms.
Symptoms of sickle cell disease
- Painful episodes called sickle cell crises, which can be very severe and last up to a week.
- An increased risk of serious infections.
- Tiredness and shortness of breath.
- Some also experience other problems, such as delayed growth, strokes and lung problems.
Causes of sickle cell disease
Sickle cell disease is caused by a gene that affects how red blood cells develop. If both parents have the gene, there's a 1 in 4 chance of each child they have being born with sickle cell disease.
The child's parents often will not have sickle cell disease themselves and they're only carriers of the sickle cell trait. In Lydia’s case, both she and her mum have it.
Could you sponsor Lydia’s ongoing medical treatment?
Lydia’s ongoing treatment costs about £50 per month. If this is something you would like to consider sponsoring or contributing towards on a monthly basis, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
Email us at contact@kidsalive.org
SOME OF OUR OTHER PROJECTS IN KENYA:
The quarry children of Karrundas
A lot of our work in Kenya is based in the HIV-ravaged Karrundas region, where poverty is so bad that many children work long and mind-numbing hours in the quarries. We work hard to strengthen their families (usually impoverished widows or grandmothers), so they are able to get out of the poverty trap and their children can go to school.
The Amazing Hall Mead School
This remarkable project provides a great primary school education to 500 of the most vulnerable quarry children. About 25% have HIV and almost all have lost at least one parent. As well as a great education, the children receive three meals a day, family strengthening, trauma care and counselling, Bible studies, life skills and more. The school is also used as a base to reach out to the quarry families.
Children from the slums of Kibera (pilot project)
With nearly half of half of Nairobi’s population living in a slum, child abuse and neglect is rampant. We would like to establish the best way of serving the most vulnerable of the slums’ children, so we have recently started to reach out to some of them and their families. Our support includes getting the children to stay in school, family strengthening, trauma care, Bible study and Christian outreach and so much more.
“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless…”
Psalm 10: 17-18
Postal address: Kids Alive International, PO Box 1529, Stamford, PE2 2YD.
Registered address: Kids Alive International, 60 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8LU
Telephone: 07873 550968 | Registered Charity: 1140641 (England & Wales)
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