We are constantly hearing that water is life, but recently for one family in the small, rural village of Atitoe, Togo, water was able to save a young girl’s life in more ways than one. The constant changes in Togo makes us remind us what we're working on.
Atitoe is a village that is about an hour away from the health center in Agbelouve, Togo. This village is also the location of the most recent water well GPiH has built. In March, our team visited the village for the dedication of the new water well, and the health center’s staff was able to join along in the celebration and dedication.
During the dedication, one of the staff members met a family whose daughter was sick. The parents explained that she had been in great pain and very weak since infancy and that she had been seen by numerous health clinics, but never improved. The health center’s staff encouraged the family to come to Agbelouve for treatment.
The family was able to take their daughter to the health center where she received treatment from our Togolese medical team and was diagnosed with sickle cell disease, a disease that her brother had passed away from two years prior. This disease causes red blood cells to contort into a sickle shape, which causes red cells to die, leading to a shortage of healthy cells, weakness, constant pain, and if left untreated, early death.
Thankfully she was able to come to the health center and started on daily treatment for this disease and is now beginning to thrive, as you can see from this picture taken 2 months after starting treatment.
We never know who we will meet and why they have been put in our lives, but we can be grateful that through the dedication of the water well in Atitoe, this young girl and her family were able to access life-saving medical care.
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