ALONES

This is Farah, an autistic girl from Gaza who is almost sixteen years old, though you wouldn't say it from her stature. Farah has experienced stunted growth due to her chronic kidney problems.

Her kidneys leak potassium, putting her at severe risk of becoming deficient. Before I started a fundraiser for her and her family, her potassium was dangerously low and she had started to experience muscle weakness in her leg. Her mother wasn't able to afford the right amount of potassium supplements for her, so she was rationing them, only giving her daughter 1/3 of the required dose.

Muscle weakness is a known complication of hypokalemia (which is the fancy word for potassium deficiency), and can be fatal if it affects one's heart (since it is also a muscle). The worst complication is therefore cardiac arrest.

I sometimes think about how close Farah might have been to death and shudder. Luckily we didn't have to find out. I started Farah's fundraiser and we managed to get enough donations for one month's worth of potassium supplements. And the next month, and the next,...

Until this month. Farah's mother Wesal (@shahdgazza) has been telling me that she's having trouble getting access to the medication. She is not the only person in Gaza who has told me there is a scarcity of certain medications. A couple of weeks ago, she was able to get her hands on a strip of potassium pills that expired four months ago. It's better than nothing, though. Then last week she was able to buy another ten tablets, but each one cost $10. Wesal has started rationing the supplements again.

If Farah's potassium levels get dangerously low again, she might need to be hospitalised to be supplemented intravenously. This is something we really want to avoid, because it is very stressful for Farah! But we also need to make sure we can afford it if she does have to go to the hospital.

Please donate to help Farah! If you cannot donate, at least share her story. We need to make sure we have the money to buy the medication when it becomes available or pay for hospitalisation if it is needed.

Farah deserves a chance to live, to grow, to laugh again. Your compassion today could be the miracle that saves her tomorrow.

Farah's fundraiser is vetted by gazavetters, #451!

https://c.org/NxT7dR4kch