An urgent appeal

My sister Debi is racing to raise funds to save a young girl's life in Africa. Here's the story that she posted on her Facebook page:

I need your help to raise funds to save the life of Sena Ahouanmenou. She is a 13-year-old girl in the village of Ajara in the Republic of Benin. Through the efforts of my personal friend, Peter Opa, she and other students have been attending a school there.

Peter has been working for several years to help the children in Ajara. He has spent thousands of dollars of his own money to provide food and other assistance so that they can attend school. Sena is one of the brightest of the students, and she dreams of becoming a doctor. Right now there is no health care in Ajara, and Peter has been raising funds to build a clinic.

A few weeks ago, Sena became ill. She started losing weight, and her condition is rapidly deteriorating. In the absence of health care, she is being treated with traditional medicines (herbs and leaves). Some are blaming her condition on voodoo witches; they think the witches might be sucking her blood. It is more likely that she has malaria or one of the other diseases that have claimed lives in Ajara. We desperately need to get her to a real doctor who can diagnose and treat her, and there is very little time to waste.

We think the best way to help Sena is to get her to Europe (France, Germany or Belgium) for treatment. To do so, we need to get a visa, and we need to be able to prove to the embassy that we have enough money to pay for flight tickets, lodging and medical expenses for Sena and her mother. Peter has already raised $3,000, but another $6,000 is needed.

I know Peter, and I trust him. I know that he works hard at a well-paying job but lives very frugally so that he can spend most of his money to help the people of Ajara. I have therefore offered to help Sena by donating some of my own money, and I am calling on friends to join me in helping raise the money that we need to save Sena's life.

You can donate make a donation by going to the website for Peter's project and visiting the donation page at:

http://ajaraproject.org/fiveblessings.html

Please help now with a gift of $10, $50, $100 or whatever you can afford. The Ajara project is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means that your donation will be tax-deductible.

Please join me in helping Sena.

Your friend,
Debi Rivkin