Every child has a story. Every child deserves hope.
Li Is Growing Up
How medical support helped one family stay together.
Names have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
Nine-year-old Li goes to school, helps her mother on their family farm, and enjoys painting, singing, and sports.
Sometimes, she and her mother go into the mountains together to gather star anise.
She is growing up.
Eight years ago, when Li was just one year old, her mother wasn’t sure she would be able to keep raising her.
When Medical Care Became Impossible to Afford
Li has transfusion-dependent thalassemia. She needs regular blood transfusions, every three to four weeks, to survive, along with medication or an overnight infusion to manage complications from those transfusions.
Her mother, Lu, is a farmer. The family was already trying to meet the expenses of raising their son, who was in high school. The cost of Li’s ongoing medical care was approximately $200 a month at the time.
For Lu’s family, that was more than they could afford.
When there wasn’t enough money, Lu sometimes had to choose between Li’s blood transfusion and her medication.
Eventually, she began considering sending her daughter to an orphanage so that Li could receive the medical care she needed.
Lu didn’t want to give up her daughter.
She simply couldn’t see another way to get her treatment.
Then Someone Said, “We Will Help You.”
In 2018, Lu brought Li to a free medical clinic Knowing Hope was offering with thalassemia expert Dr. Vasilios Berdoukas.
Lu waited all day until every patient had been seen.
Only then did she approach.
Li was a beautiful baby with big brown eyes, alert and attentive to everything happening around her.
When Lu explained what was happening, Knowing Hope was able to tell her that we would help support Li’s medical care.
Lu sobbed.
For the first time, she had another option.
She could keep raising her daughter and provide her with the medical treatment she needed.
Knowing Hope began sending funds directly to support Li’s blood transfusions and medications. We have continued to support her for the past eight years.
And Today, Li Is Nine.
Li still lives with a serious chronic illness.
Her story isn’t about a cure.
It is about what became possible when her family had the means to continue her care.
She is growing up.
She helps her mother on their farm. Sometimes, they go into the mountains together to gather star anise.
She paints.
She sings.
She plays sports.
She goes to school.
She is living her life with the people who love her.
Her mother describes Li as thoughtful and considerate, and remarkably mature for her age.
A Mother Who Once Had No Hope
Recently, Lu sent a message after Li returned to the hospital for a follow-up appointment.
“A thousand words cannot express how fortunate we are to have met you!
My daughter and I are where we are today because of you!”
Eight years ago, Lu was facing a decision no parent should have to make.
She loved her daughter.
But she could not afford the treatment that kept her alive.
Today, she gets to watch Li go to school, help on the family farm, discover what she loves, and grow into the person she is becoming.
This Is What Family Preservation Can Look Like
It isn’t always a dramatic cure.
Sometimes it is a blood transfusion.
Sometimes it is medication.
Sometimes it is helping a mother afford treatment so she doesn’t have to choose between medical care and keeping her family together.
Li didn’t need a different family.
She needed her family to have a way to care for her.
Knowing Hope has helped make that possible.
And today, Lu gets to watch her daughter grow.
Li is nine.
She is still growing.
And she is growing up with her family.
Help A Child Stay With The Family Who Loves Them
Your gift helps provide lifesaving medical care to children whose families cannot afford it, and helps give parents another choice when medical costs put their families at risk.
Every child deserves a family. Every family deserves a fighting chance.
One Life at a Time
Ping’s Second Life
How one grant helped a family finish their daughter’s leukemia treatment.
Names have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.
In December 2016, Knowing Hope learned about an 11-year-old girl named Ping.
Ping had acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. She lived with her mother, father, older sister, and younger brother.
Her family was doing everything they could to keep her in treatment. People in their village had even come together to organize a donation drive to help with the enormous cost of her care.
But the money was running out.
Ping’s parents were afraid they might have to stop her treatment because they could no longer afford it.
A Family Trying To Keep Going
Knowing Hope first heard about Ping through another villager who shared her story with us.
There was an unexpected obstacle: Ping’s parents weren’t sure we were real.
They were understandably cautious about strangers offering to help their daughter. It took about a month of communication and reassurance before they trusted that Knowing Hope was genuine, and that we were willing to help.
In January 2017, Knowing Hope provided a one-time grant to help pay for Ping’s final round of inpatient chemotherapy.
That grant enabled Ping to complete that final round of treatment.
Then She Got To Go Home
By the fall of 2017, Ping was considered cured and was able to return to school.
Her family kept in touch with us, and over the years we watched her grow.
Today, Ping is 20 years old.
She is living her life to the fullest.
And her father once sent a message that will never be forgotten:
Thank you, our friends, for giving my daughter a second life!
Sometimes Hope Means Being There At The Right Moment.
Sometimes hope means helping a family through one impossible moment.
For Ping, that moment was the final round of treatment.
Knowing Hope was there.
A Reason To Smile
Helping a child feel that her life matters
The Day We Met Her
An eight-year-old girl with transfusion-dependent thalassemia was living with her father and grandmother in her village.
Her mother had left the family. The family believed her daughter’s illness was part of the reason.
By the time we met her, the little girl seemed to have absorbed the idea that she was a burden.
She barely looked up.
She seemed deeply sad.
Then We Came Back
Knowing Hope began supporting her medical treatment.
When we returned to the village in November 2018, something had changed.
She smiled.
Sometimes hope begins with helping a child feel that her life matters.
Every Child Has A Story. Every Child Deserves Hope.
These stories are only a few of the children and families Knowing Hope has had the privilege to support.
Some need help for years. Others need help at a critical moment. And sometimes, a child simply needs to know that her life matters.
Your support makes it possible for Knowing Hope to be there – one child, one family, one life at a time.
Every child deserves a family. Every family deserves a fighting chance.
One life at a time.
Knowing Hope Inc.
PO Box 72, Andover, MA 01810
Tax ID 47-3315850
info@knowinghope.org
Knowing Hope, one life at a time.