Madam Kadie Foday has not had an easy life trying to make a living for herself in rural Sierra Leone. At age 53, she has no children, and her husband has passed away leaving her a widow to fend for herself.
To top it off, earlier this year she was suffering from a severe case of gout (a common form of inflammatory arthritis that is very painful, notes the CDC) and had been searching for help, reported Joseph Kobba, program director of our partner there, Rural Youth Development Organization – Sierra Leone (RYDO-SL), which operates clinics which provide free healthcare for those in need of medical treatment and cannot afford to pay.
As luck would have it, a friend of Madam Foday had recently sought treatment at the Mokpendeh Health Center operated by RYDO-SL who encouraged her to make a visit to the health center “assuring her that she will be treated for free,” said Joseph.
Following her friend’s advice, Madam Foday went to the center seeking help for her illness where she was treated with the medication, the anti-inflammatory drug Colchicine, provided by our partner, the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), and shipped to Sierra Leone by Bread and Water for Africa® thanks to our supporters, which is used to prevent or treat gout attacks.
A few months later, Joseph told us that she had returned to the medical center to thank the nurse who had treated her, Ann-Marie Smart, and report that “there has been significant improvement in her gout illness as she now has much less pain” and can once again enjoy partaking in her favorite leisure activity – listening to the radio.
As for Madam Foday herself, she noted that without the medicine donated by CMMB she received at the Mokpendeh Health Center she would still be in constant pain today and could have even undergone unnecessary medical procedures.
And while there is no cure for gout, according to the CDC, it can be effectively treated and managed with medication – medication that Madam Foday now has thanks to the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa® through whose generosity we were able to ship a 40-foot container filled with medicines, such as colchicine, medical supplies and equipment to RYDO-SL for distribution to patients at its seven clinics in the Bumpe Ngao Chiefdom Bo District where about 80 percent of the population lives in absolute poverty, with incomes below $1 a day.
Working together, Bread and Water for Africa® and CMMB are able to support RYDO-SL in its mission to prevent and treat a wide variety of sicknesses such as malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, typhoid and many others which untreated can lead to severe illness, and even death.
“This is my first time to receive a medicine for my illness,” she told us. “Many times I had been advised to seek a surgical operation.
“Thank you to the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa®.”
