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This
is the amazing story of Algo Goito, a 6 year old Hamar
tribal boy from the Omo Valley whose father Goito, a
tribal herder, walked all night carrying his son to
reach us at our Volunteer Medical Program to Ethiopia
in July, 2005. Algo had Burkitt's Lymphoma, a deadly,
horrendously disfiguring but treatable disease.
We
rushed Algo and his Dad to the hospital in Addis. I
quickly sent over 9 months of cancer medicines from
the US and he began treatment. No-one there spoke Hamar
so communication with Algo's Dad Goito was via our Hamar
students on TurtleWill scholarships in Addis.
Algo
fell into a coma, but when he awoke the tumors in his
mouth were no longer visible. But Algo still had another
7 months of cancer treatment to undergo. By now Algo’s
dad was needing to get back to the rest of his family
and his herd. The doctors agreed only if Algo returned
monthly for the rest of his treatments.
It's
a 5 day round trip to Hamar territory and back. Each
month we pick Algo up and then return him home. His
treatments cost over $1000 monthly. How privileged we
are to be able to help a child with cancer for only
$9,000.
In
the words of Solomon, a Hamar student "I am so
glad when I saw the baby you bring from Hamar. I didn't
expect that he would be okay. I haven't see till you
a person who do this for Nomadic peoples. I wish you
to continue and I hope I will be able to do it too".
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