Jespa's Journey

Rashel Merenesswho is one of the main reasons Jespa has come so far in his Journey wrote thefollowing and we decided to create this account for all those willing to helpJespa. Thank you Rashel and Jespa's supporters. 

"It's hard tobelieve this year has flown by so fast. It was just last October when Jespaarrived in the US as a quiet young boy, badly wounded and unable to use hisright arm. Now, thanks to the support of all of you, Torrance Memorial Hospitaland the Children’s Burn Foundation, he's an outgoing teenager who can ride abike and play basketball. He's even learning piano as part of his therapy. He,and we at Plant a Seed, cannot thank you enough.

As many of you know, The Children's Burn Foundation has generously provided thefunding for all of Jespa's surgeries for his hand and arm, skin grafts, eye andnose reconstruction, and hairline expanders, totaling over $100,000 and allaccommodations in the US for the past year. Dr, Matthew Reiss generouslydonated his services and Torrance Memorial Hospital provided the facilities atgreatly discounted rates.
 
Jespa hasconcluded all the necessary surgeries and usually, children return home aftersuch an extensive surgical schedule. However, Dr. Reiss has identified a few additional procedures andrehabilitation work that would help Jespa regain even more use of his arm. Inaddition, Jespa has enrolled at Arena High School for this year until he can transfer to El Segundo High School hopefully in the fall. While Jespa couldreturn to Cameroon now, we feel that with all of the effort and funds that the CBF,Torrance Memorial, and Dr. Reiss have invested to date, we’d like to help Jespafurther overcome the disadvantages he’s faced so far by helping him finish hiseducation in the US and continue his rehabilitation at state of the artfacilities. If you’ve met Jespa, you know that he is an amazing young man. Hissmile in infectious and we know that he has the potential to go on to amazingthings. We want to give him all of the opportunities we can.

The Children’s Burn Foundation has again so graciously agreed to assist Jespato get accepted to Shriners Hospital for any future burn care needs and Jespawill continue to be part of the programs that are offered by CBF.  We are eternally grateful to CBF for helpingJespa in his recovery.

But at this timewe are reaching out to those of you who have supported Jespa's Journey to helpus fund his continuing stay in the US for the next year, until he is 18 andbetter able to support himself.
Our goal is to raise $1500 every month for the next six to eight months (total $9,000- 11,500) for food, rent, transportation and insurance.

Ruth Akumbu has been an amazingly gracious host for Jespa, bringing him intoher home as if he were family. But Ruth is a full-time student and does nothave the financial resources to support Jespa on her own. Jespa's guardian,Rebecca (Ruth's sister, who legally adopted Jespa so that she could help himhere in the US) is currently applying for a US work permit, but cannot legallywork for the next few months until it is approved. She's a law student, soplease keep her in mind if you hear of open positions!

We cannot do this on our own. Will you support us as we help Jespa through this next phase of his journey?  #GoBeyondGiving

Please note: gofundme keeps a small percentage of all donations for their services.