Hassam786satti

Dear CZ,

I wanted to thank you and share what your generosity has just made possible.

Because of your support, Helen Keller International and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health are now delivering nearly 2 million donated tablets — just weeks from expiry — to protect 1.4 million schoolchildren from schistosomiasis, one of the country’s greatest health threats. Without your help, they would have been destroyed in early October.

Your support came at the critical moment. M▒▒▒, which has donated these medicines for over 20 years, had begun to scale back production for 2026, worried that tablets would go unused. As Johannes Waltz, who leads their program, said: “These worms lay hundreds of eggs a day, so even one missed treatment could cause schistosomiasis to explode, wiping out years of progress.” Thanks to you, M▒▒▒ is preparing to ramp production back up, knowing the medicine will reach children.

Year after year, parents in Sierra Leone wait for this campaign. Volunteers like Sulaiman Tarawallie, a schoolteacher who has walked house to house distributing pills, have seen how it frees families from diseases like elephantiasis and blindness. He warned that “if the program stops, the worst might happen.” Your gift made sure that didn’t happen this year.

The impact:
•1.4 million children protected for the next year.
•Millions in donated medicine saved from being destroyed.
•Years of progress preserved, with Sierra Leone on track to become the first country in Africa to eliminate this disease.
•Every $1 unlocked more than $25 in donated medicine — an extraordinary return.

The Ministry of Health, which mobilized health workers, schools, and communities to make this possible, asked me to convey their gratitude to you. They would also like to know if it would be alright to send an official letter of thanks addressed to you from the government.

At the last moment, you prevented millions of dollars of life-saving medicine from being lost — and ensured that children can return to school healthy, strong, and hopeful for the future.

With gratitude,
Joseph