Kimberly's Story

Kimberly joined Watsi on September 19th, 2016. Seven years ago, Kimberly joined our Universal Fund, supporting life-changing treatments for a new Watsi patient every month. Kimberly's most recent donation supported Saw Htoo, an 11-year-old refugee from Thailand, to fund surgery to remove a kidney stone so he can live pain free and return to school.

Impact

Kimberly has funded healthcare for 86 patients in 13 countries.

Patients funded by Kimberly

Saw Htoo is an 11-year-old boy from Burma who lives with his parents, 4 brothers and a sister in a refugee camp, in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand. His parents fled to the camp from Karen State, Burma, due to the civil war in 2010. Saw Htoo is in grade 4 and his favorite subject is English. His father used to work as a day laborer before travel restrictions were imposed on camp residents after the outbreak of covid-19. Since then, both of Saw Htoo’s parents are homemakers. Although they receive a small monthly cash card to purchase food in the camp, as well as free basic health care and education, they struggle to make ends meet. For the past 5 years, Saw Htoo has been brought frequently to the hospital in the camp due to having urine in his blood. He has also experienced pain while going to the bathroom, developed a fever and pain in his bladder area. He received an ultrasound, an x-ray of his kidney, ureter and bladder (KUB) and an intravenous pyelogram (IVP) and was diagnosed with a renal stone in his right renal pelvis. At a follow-up appointment in August 2023, he received another IVP which indicated that the stone was increasing in size and doctors recommended Saw Htoo have surgery to remove the stone. Saw Htoo has been experiencing pain in his back, and he often needs to take leave from school because of the pain. Fortunately, our medical partner Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF) can help. Saw Htoo is scheduled for surgery on September 8th, and BCMF is asking for help to raise $1,500 to fund the procedure. Saw Htoo said, “I want to become a football player [in the future] because I love to play football.”

$688raised
$812to go

Mary is an eight-year-old girl. She is a talkative and playful young girl. She is the last born in a family of seven children and the family is not well off financially. Both of her parents do casual jobs like ploughing people's farms for a living and such jobs are not easy to find where they live. Sometimes the church members chip in to help them where they can. When Mary was one year old, she was involved in an accident where she sustained burns to her head, some parts of her face and neck. She was rushed to the hospital and was admitted for better care. While in the hospital, a surgery was done on her head where she had sustained more burns. She was then discharged and booked for wound dressing clinics. The wounds were healing well as per the doctors’ plan. Her parents managed to take her for the clinics for a few months but later stopped because of finances. While at home, the wound got infected but due to lack of funds, she was not taken to hospital at that time. Time went by and the infection spread to most parts of the head. When she was three years old, the family met up with a local pastor who started helping them. He started financing Mary’s hospital visits with the help of some church members where he ministered. The wound was dressed again but the recovery process was very slow. In mid this year, the pastor brought them to Kijabe Hospital, she was examined, and the wound was dressed properly. Since then, the wound has been healing as expected. Fortunately, our medical partner, African Mission Healthcare, is helping Mary receive treatment. On December 9th, surgeons will perform a debridement and skin graft procedure to help the remaining wound to heal properly. Now, Mary's family needs help to fund this $1,185 procedure. Mary’s father says, "Since the accident, we have been struggling a lot to make her get the required treatment but have failed to some extent. Coming to Kijabe, our hopes have been boosted greatly with the improvement she has experienced, and we hope that she will go through with the surgery and be well again.”

$1,185raised
Fully funded