On Thanksgiving eve, this little girl named Lara, one of the war refugee children that the Ayla Project is supporting, turned blue in the face. Lara needs a life-saving surgery so that she can live to see more holidays.
Please support this year-end $10,000 campaign if you are able, and share with your networks to save Lara and other children like her. If instead of GoFundMe, you prefer to give via our 501c3 nonprofit partner Horizons for the 2024 tax deduction, please give online here (select “Ayla Project” from the drop-down menu), or mail your donation.
Thank you for your past support of API this year, and for your consideration in contributing toward this urgent campaign.
Rula Khoury, co-founder of the Ayla Project, provides this update on Lara …
Lara’s mother, an intelligent, multilingual academic, is haunted by the day—not long ago—when the family was ordered to evacuate by a voice on the phone. What bothers her the most is not that their beautiful stone home on the Mediterranean Sea was reduced to rubble or that the beautiful life they built was destroyed—it is that she and her husband had to leave so quickly with their son and daughter in tow, that they left the beloved family dog, Sultan, tied up in the backyard as the bombs began to fall. The thought of this instantaneously brings tears to her eyes.
Now evacuated from the Middle East conflict zone, the family lives in the Egyptian capital, sharing an overcrowded apartment with five other families. We invited them to attend an Ayla Project family gathering at a fun park with four additional families and the Ayla Project’s coordinating doctor, Dr. Kamil. Almost 4-year-old Lara has a complex case of congenital heart disease and is immunocompromised. A team of Italian doctors told her mother that she could only be treated in Europe. On Thanksgiving Eve, Lara began to turn blue.
Her mother contacted the Ayla Project. “Lara is turning blue! What should I do? Where should I take her?”
I messaged my colleague Tara, who said that she was on the phone with Dr. Kamil, who was now expecting my call. Dr. Kamil arranged for Lara’s immediate transfer to the hospital where his colleague, one of Egypt’s preeminent pediatric cardiologists, works. The hospital gave Lara oxygen and an IV with meds and fluids and was able to stabilize her vital signs. The family only had 5,000 Egyptian pounds to pay toward the 20,000 Egyptian pound bill ($402), so Dr. Kamil paid the hospital the remaining 15,000 Egyptian pound ($302) balance from the API medical fund.
When Dr. Kamil came to visit Lara in her hospital room, he asked her, “Lara, do you remember me?”
“Yes!” the little girl exclaimed. “I remember you from the party!” She later sent Dr. Kamil a picture of herself in recovery, with a note that said: “With gratitude to the most excellent Doctor!” Lara’s mother asked Dr. Kamil if it might be possible for her daughter to have heart surgery and to be treated at Al Nas Hospital, a partner of API.
Dr. Kamil arranged for Dr. Baher, his pediatric cardiologist colleague, to review Lara’s case file. Dr. Baher confirmed that only a few doctors in Egypt could conduct the surgery, and one of them was at Al Nas!
API is now formally adopting this family. It is critical that we raise funds to put Lara and her family in a dedicated and safe apartment near the hospital, and for Lara’s life-saving upcoming heart surgery, in addition to supporting critical needs for other families in the API program.
We aim to raise $10,000 in general support by year-end. In order to reach this goal, 15 gifts of $20, 14 gifts of $50, 15 gifts of $100, 9 gifts of $500, and three gifts of $1,000 are needed.
Any gift, from $20 to $10,000, helps us to reach our $10,000 goal by December 31st, 2024.
P.S. Individuals who give $500 or more in response to this campaign will receive a beautiful handmade glass art flying heart in January. Please make sure to send us your mailing address!
A gift of any amount—from $20 to $10,000—goes a long way in Egypt as the Ayla Project works to empower critically ill or injured war refugee children and their families to thrive through safe relocation and medical, psychological, educational, and employment resources.
These families have survived one of the worst humanitarian crises of this generation. Together, we can empower them to thrive. Thank you for uplifting the hearts of our refugees, many of whom are heart patients.