My name is Aaron. I am from the US but have lived in East Africa for nearly five years. One of the important people in my life in Nairobi during this time as been Radu, who was originally "just" my housekeeper but quickly became a very good friend of mine as well.

Radu needs your help - please watch the video telling her story in her own words and read on below on how you can make an enormous impact in this amazing woman's life.

Radu is a 37-year-old single mother of three who has been diagnosed with debilitating intra-uterine fibroids which have taken over her abdomen and brought her once-active life to a standstill. She can't work, walk or stand, or even sleep for very long and is constantly bleeding.

After being misdiagnosed and seeing several negligent state doctors whose main concern was more her ability to produce children for hypothetical 'future husbands' vs. her own health and wellbeing, Radu has finally found a gynecologist she feels she can trust. He is the only doctor to have given her the option of a hysterectomy where her ovaries will be left intact in the surgery so that she does not enter early menopause as a result of the procedure.

Unfortunately, medical insurance in Kenya does not cover any gynecological procedures (aside from birth/C-sections - go figure!) and Radu is a low-income worker in this low-income country, so this surgery and associated costs are completely unaffordable for her.

We have set an initial $3,000 goal to cover her surgery, living costs for her family during the recovery period (she is the sole caretaker of her 3 children and live-in mother who recently had a stroke), and renewal of her medical insurance for 2023.

Any extra money this fundraiser might bring in will go towards paying for her children's school fees, which she has to borrow money to afford normally. I would love to be able to make this enough that she might even have something small left to spend on herself - something she never does. The one vacation she had ever saved for was canceled by COVID in 2020 and the economic instability thereafter has meant she spent that money on survival instead.

So big or small - any amount will help. A thousand thanks in advance to anyone who can help at whatever level!