Mama Grace needs your help!
Hello all-
As many of you know, I served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania from 2002-2004. Prior to starting service, we Peace Corps Volunteers lived in Tanzania for 3 months as "trainees," staying with homestay families who cared for us and helped immerse us in Tanzanian culture. I was lucky enough to be assigned to the family of Mama Grace Marwa. Our family was poor (3-room house made of cement, no indoor plumbing), but my "mama" was so loving, funny, and caretaking. She would hand-grind coconuts for me nearly every day because she knew I loved the coconut milk in my beans. She spent hours ripping/combing the Maasai twists out of my hair when it was time to get them out (now that's love). Even after my training was over and I had moved to my site for service, I would go back and visit my homestay family in Arusha for holidays. They were truly my Tanzanian family.
Mama Grace now needs your help. She has severe degenerative spondylopathy (degeneration of her spine) with narrowing of the lumbar canal and severe impingement at the nerve roots. She has had terrible back pain and lower body numbness for more than 5 years, and 3 months ago, in December 2025, she entirely lost the ability to walk. She has thus been bedridden for 3 months. She has also lost significant control of her bowel and bladder. She has been evaluated by specialists and undergone an MRI, and she has been informed that the only solution for her is to undergo spine surgery to perform decompression of the spinal canal. Without this surgery, she will never be able to walk again, and will likely lose complete control of her bowel and bladder.
The best specialists for this surgery who are able to see her are in India. The Indian hospital has arranged for her hospital stay and surgery, as well as her transport and visa. She is planning to go as soon as possible. The doctors have explained that if the surgery is successful, Mama Grace should be able to start to walk again within days of the surgery.
The entire cost for the treatment and trip is $8,000. Through their own fundraising, the family has already paid $5,500 toward the bill. (To get this, one of her daughters had to sell a plot of land in Dar Es Salaam that she had spent her life saving up for, while a huge number of other friends and family members chipped in amounts as well.) I am fundraising to help them close the balance for the remaining $2,500 for the treatment and trip.
Could you please chip in to help Mama Grace get this surgery? Any little bit helps. Thank you so much!