Rafaél with his mum and twin brother Gabriél
Rafaél is a 5 and a half year old boy who lives with his mum, twin brother, two older brothers, and older sister at the orphanage. He is the one on the left in the photo here – the smaller of the two boys.
He has a pain in his jaw and last year the local doctors told him he needed to go to the hospital to get it checked out, so I arranged for them to go to Chiquimula (Guatemala) which is just over the border about an hour and half away from here. There, the doctors removed a tooth and thought that was the end of it. Since then he has still been experiencing pain and often doesnt eat because of it.
A couple of days ago Marivél (his mum) took him to a medical brigade that was in town. They checked him out and told her there is something making his glands grow larger than they should be (not having any medical knowledge besides putting on a plaster im not sure if something was lost in translation… i dont know if its something causing the gland to swell or if something is making the gland be bigger than its supposed to be). The doctor doesnt know what is causing it and thinks there could possibly be some sort of tumor behind the gland – on his left jaw – causing it. The same thing is making hearing out of his left ear very difficult.
The doctor recommended he go to a specific hospital in Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) ASAP to get tests done to find out what is causing the trouble, and to get it removed or fixed. The sooner the better.
We are unsure of the costs at this stage because we dont know exactly what it is, but for now, the main cost will probably be the trip to the city and lodging while in the city.
If you are able to make a small donation to help us fund the trip and hospital fees then please do so. All the information (for both NZers and people from other countries) for transferring money to the bank account can be found on the donations page.
Any help would be much appreciated. Please specify that the donation is for “Rafael” if possible. Thank you very much.