“Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” Matthew 19:14 (NRSV)
When you look at South Sudan on a map, you’ll see a remote and landlocked country in East Africa that seems almost impossible to reach.
Fortunately, your love knows no bounds—it can travel to places where most can’t—or won’t.
And thank God you’re here, because your young neighbors, like sweet Wany, living in this remote land need your support now more than ever.
Roads have been flooded for so long that islands have formed—creating communities that are completely surrounded by water. It is incredibly difficult for Wany’s mother, Nyadech, to access basic essentials, like food, water or medicine, without a boat.
And you can imagine how difficult it is for the women living here to access a boat.
You see, many families settled here because they were forced to flee horrific violence in their homeland. Fathers and husbands were lost to the unrest that has plagued South Sudan since it won its independence in 2011.
Your heartfelt gift today helps families in these hard-to-reach areas get the food, water and medicine they need to survive.
Mothers like Nyadech have one goal—to create the best life they can for their babies.
With your support, mothers like Nyadech won’t be forced to travel incredibly long journeys across floodwaters to get lifesaving health care for their babies.
They are surrounded by mud and water with little to no possessions. But this is now their home, and they want to make the best of it. They work the soil with the few tools they have on their hands and knees, planting seeds to try to grow nourishing food to feed their children.
Through their hard work and determination, they can overcome so many obstacles thrown their way...
...except when their sweet babies get sick.
One afternoon, Wany was not acting like himself. He hadn’t eaten anything all day and felt very warm and feverish. Nyadech’s motherly intuition kicked in.
She knew something was wrong with her 4-year-old.
For little boys like Wany...it’s never “just a little fever.”
Can you imagine not being able to simply reach inside your medicine cabinet to grab some fever reducer to treat a child’s fever? We do it all the time.
It’s not that easy for mothers like Nyadech.
Thanks to the loving gifts of kindhearted neighbors, like you, she accessed one of the mobile clinics Lutheran World Relief supports in South Sudan.
Fearing the worst, the worried mother walked to the clinic in the early evening, stepping through the tall woven fence made of local river grasses, carrying a fever-sick Wany in her arms. Thon Maker, a clinical officer, had just taken his first bite of his long-awaited dinner when he saw Nyadech carrying her sick baby through the compound. He immediately pushed his plate aside and brought Wany over to a small plastic table to evaluate him.
Thon knew he had to act quickly. Dinner could wait...Wany could not.
He took Wany’s temperature, which was a high 102.7 degrees, and immediately tested him for malaria. While this disease is largely unheard of and completely treatable here in America, it is too-often deadly for your vulnerable young neighbors throughout Africa.
Malaria is mostly contracted by mosquito bites. Symptoms typically begin with a fever, which quickly reaches dangerous temperatures.
Thankfully, your loving gifts stocked this mobile clinic with acetaminophen, which Thon gave Many to lower his fever as they awaited his malaria results.
Nyadech, sick with worry about Wany, informed Thon that her son had nothing to eat that day. Thon gave Wany a sweet biscuit, but Wany was so weak he could barely hold onto it.
The results confirmed Thon’s thoughts—Wany had malaria.
With your support, Wany was able to receive a lifesaving dose of Coartem, the drug used across Africa to stop malaria in its tracks.
Before mobile clinics, like the one Wany visited, were constructed, displaced families had nowhere to turn for medical treatment. The nearest option took about four hours to reach by canoe.
If malaria isn’t treated immediately, it can kill. Yet, thanks to your caring heart, mothers like Nyadech no longer have to travel that far for care.
- When you share your blessings with a gift today, you’re providing:
- Nourishing, sustainable food solutions, including seeds for gardens.
- Mobile health clinics stocked with medicine, first aid supplies and highly trained personnel to treat common illnesses, offer women’s health services, and heal minor injuries at no cost to the patients.
- A speed boat that serves as an ambulance for patients whose illnesses are too critical for the mobile clinic and delivers critical supplies like food, medicine and water to remote villages.
- Hope, love and the comfort in knowing families in the most remote regions have a compassionate neighbor, like you, who cares.
Wany was able to receive a critical medicine called Coartem that effectively treats malaria as long as it’s taken at the first sign of symptoms. If the mobile clinic your love helped build wasn’t there, Wany would have been in serious danger.
Thank you for showing little children like Wany that love always finds a way.
