Pakistan: $3 Brought Muhammad Out of Hell

When you place yourself in Muhammad Zaman’s shoes, even just for a moment, the idea of donations of medical supplies for clinics serving the poorest of the poor becomes incredibly exciting.

Muhammad is 14 years old and suffers from rickets. Many in the west will not be familiar with this ailment, since it is linked to chronically deficient diets, and this is not something your typical Westerner has to deal with. Rickets is a disorder in which the bones become soft and weak. The symptoms include dental deformities, muscle cramps, and ferocious bone pain. Frankly speaking, this is a disorder that makes a hell out of life.

The District Headquarter Hospital in Karak, Pakistan, has been operating for the past six months thanks to shipments of medicine and medical supplies that HOPE International Development Agency’s donors have funded. This hospital serves the poorest people in a very indigent region, and it is chronically under-supplied, although the doctors and nurses  who work there are incredibly devoted to their patients.

Muhammed’s pain became so severe that his father, a daily wage labourer, took him to the Hospital in Karak. The doctor there discovered that one leg was fractured. Elastic bandages costing a little more than $3 were required for the treatment. This was far more than Muhammed’s father could afford to pay. Luckily, the doctor consulted our colleagues in Pakistan and the shipment they had received included the bandages. So instead of sending Muhammed out into the world in unimaginable pain, with no hope of relief - which is what happens over and over again in developing world villages with under-supplied clinics - the doctor was able to treat this young boy.

Muhammed’s experiences are very real. There are so many people like him. We don’t know about their pain, for the most part. But there is so much that we can do to help. $3 brought one boy relief beyond words. Thanks to our donors, this kind of thing is happening all of the time.