Cause 1:
Selena Mendoza "The Story of an Ecuadorian Girl"
 Selena (7) is an exceptionally beautiful and gracious little Ecuadorian girl. She is very white, has pretty blue eyes and light reddish hair. She loves to sing and dance and wear fancy shoes and pink dresses. Her favorite meal are hamburgers, she goes to school and likes watching television with her little sister. The future seems bright for Selena.
The only thing in her life that reminds her that she is not normal is the fact that her right hand has no fingers, and that she has to go to hospital each time she is a little sick. But Selena has the Turner Syndrome, a genetic defect (one x-chromosome missing) which will soon make a normal life impossible to her. Selena’s body does not grow and has no hair at all. She will never be able to have a baby, nor ever have her menstruation. Her immune system is very weak, and her inner organs do not grow, neither.
What does that mean? Without hormonal therapy, Selena will stay a 1.01 meters tall little girl all her life. Everybody will make fun of her at school. Her body and her organs will simply not grow. Selena will never be able to have her own family and to be a normal and happy young woman.
When her mum Rosy was pregnant with her, they both almost died, but they survived. Dad Jorge cries when he describes us the shock of learning about Selena’s defect, after almost having lost his beloved wife and daughter. The only hope for her is an immensely expensive Saizen hormonal treatment which she would have to undergo during 6 years, so she could grow up to 1.50 meters, her organs could grow, too, and her defense would become better. But Selena’s chance for a normal future is only a vague hope. The therapy includes 30 hormones per year. Each one of these hormones costs 147.40 dollars. The injections have to be done during 6 years each year, without interruption, otherwise it was all in vain.
Jorge earns $486 per month. The money is hardly enough to eat and pay the rent and bills and the two girls’ education. So Selena’s destiny seems unavoidable. She has no health insurance. How could the family ever pay this fortune of 4422 dollars per year, during 6 years ($26532)?
But Jorge still has faith. He keeps on knocking on the doors of foundations seeking help, because his daughter’s future now is the most important thing to him. He knows that it takes a miracle to collect this enormous amount of money during 6 years, but he believes in God’s and humanity’s goodness. “The love I feel for my daughters makes me richer than if I had 1000 dollars”, he says. And he has a message to everybody who reads Selena’s story: “Never stop fighting for what you really want”, he says. “Sometimes it takes a while, but God will not forget you”.
Jorge has already contacted 10 organizations and has been able to collect the money for 18 out of 30 hormones for the first year of treatment. Please help Jorge in his courageous fight for his daughter’s future.
Help Selena live a life in dignity. Make a miracle possible, here and now. For donations, please contact Ecuador Volunteer. Let's try our best to change Selena's life! Any contribution will be helpful and deeply appreciated.
Thank you!
DONATIONS FORMS
- Please make your check payable to: Ecuador Volunteer Foundation
Address: Yanez Pinzon N25-106 y Av. Colon.
Quito - Ecuador - South America
- Donate by Credit Card and Bank Transfer: Request more info in admin@ecuadorvolunteer.org
- Western Union: Please send your donation to:
Name: Francisco Pastor
Destination: Quito - Ecuador
- Please specify the type of cause that you want to help.
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Cause 2:
Jefferson Gualacata Inlago "A poor, disabled Boy's Perspectives in Ecuador "
 Jefferson is a 12 years old boy. He lives with his brother Kevin (4), his mum Jeanette (30) and his dad Cesar (34) in a very tiny indigenous community called Eugenio Espejo de Cajas, which is situated in the Andean Sierra of Imbabura province. Jefferson is a lovely boy- he loves to watch his brother play and dance, and each time his father comes home after work, he cries for joy. But Jefferson cannot express his feelings in any other way. He can’t speak, he can’t walk, nor see further than 2 meters, and he has been tied to an old wheelchair his entire life because his muscles cannot support his body, nor control his movements. His mum has to give him attention 24 hours, to change his diapers, feed and wash him and take care that he does not hurt himself with some sudden movement. Without therapies, there is no hope that this will ever change.
What happened? Jeanette can’t help crying when she tells us Jefferson’s sad story. When he was only 15 days old, his family took him to the next hospital in Cayambe for vaccinations. The bus drove so fast that when the doors opened, baby Jefferson fell on the sideway of the street and hit his head very hard. Ever since then, Jefferson has been disabled. His body grew normally, but his head didn’t (hydrocephaly); He has acute convulsions. When he was 3 months old, the doctors implanted him a valve which goes from his head to his navel and which has to be replaced every 5 years. One valve costs 2500 dollars. Cesar hardly earns 350 dollars per month in his job at the provincial administration, and Jeanette cannot work as she has to take care after Jefferson and his brother.
During the years, the family has suffered immensely. Again and again, their hopes for recovery have been deceived; they had to sell almost all their belongings, their chicken and cows that provided their food, to pay all the surgeries, the medicine, rehabilitation and daily transport to Quito during years for their beloved son. Yet they have not been able to pay the interests of the loan they had to take out for the last valve two years ago. But Jefferson is growing, and he desperately needs a new wheelchair. Without therapy, he will never learn to speak or control his movements and his digestion better, and soon he will be too old. But rehabilitation centers are far away in the capital Quito, and it takes 2 persons to carry Jefferson around. The family can’t afford to pay him therapies, and transport has become too expensive. They even lack money for basic things like diapers, medicine, medical checks, clothes and food; it takes a miracle for them to pay the next valve. And without it, Jefferson will slowly and irreversibly decline more.
Please help Jefferson and his family in their constant struggle for survival, a struggle that can be avoided. You can give them hope for a better life in dignity.
-With 100 dollars, the family can buy Jefferson’s food and diapers for one month.
-With 360 dollars, Jefferson can take one month of therapy in a private institution in Quito. The therapy includes a physical, language and occupational component, three weekly hours (1 hour: $10, 1 year: $4320)
-His valve which he needs in 3 years costs 2500 dollars.
You can make a difference, here and now. For donations, please contact Ecuador Volunteer. Let's try our best to improve Jefferson's life! Any contribution will be helpful and deeply appreciated.
Thank you!
DONATIONS FORMS
- Please make your check payable to: Ecuador Volunteer Foundation
Address: Yanez Pinzon N25-106 y Av. Colon.
Quito - Ecuador - South America
- Donate by Credit Card and Bank Transfer: Request more info in admin@ecuadorvolunteer.org
- Western Union: Please send your donation to:
Name: Francisco Pastor
Destination: Quito - Ecuador
- Please specify the type of cause that you want to help.
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