Dear Friend,
Imagine your child is barely clinging to lifeā¦ Your family is camping in a national forest, enjoying the great outdoors. Amidst all the laughter and fun, tragedy strikes. Your 2-year-old daughter trips over a limb, stumbles and falls awkwardly. You laugh at first, expecting her to jump right back upābut she doesnāt get up. In fact, she doesnāt even move. Your heart stops! You race to her only to find her unconscious, barely breathing, her head bleeding profusely and a large rock covered with her blood. You know immediately your child is critically injured. In a moment of panic, you grab her limp body, rush the family into the car and race off to find the nearest hospital. You must find emergency care.
Every minute seems like eternity. You desperately try to keep your child breathing until you can find help. Then, suddenly you realize: You are in a very remote area, hours and hours from the nearest hospital. There are no doctorsā¦ no nursesā¦ no help nearby! All you can do is hold your little child and pray that somehow, she can cling to life until you can find help.
Can you imagine the desperation, the hopelessness you would feel? My friend, this is a daily reality for nearly half the people on our planet today! When tragedy strikes, they have no doctors or hospitals; nowhere to turn for help. When illness occursāones that could easily be treated in North Americaāall they can do is helplessly watch as their loved ones perish. There is no way to measure the horror, the pain of a parent forced to watch their child die.
There is a huge healthcare crisis in our world today.
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Nearly 5 billion people today have little or no access to lifesaving surgery. This includes over 93% of sub-Saharan Africa. This directly results in the deaths of nearly 17 million people each year.
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Every year, nearly 5 million children die before their fifth birthday primarily because they have no access to functional healthcare! This is equivalent to twice the entire population of the state of Arkansasāliterally, or one child every seven seconds.
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Every two minutes a young mother needlessly dies from complications of childbirthāmostly because they have no access to emergency surgery such as C-sections.
We believe this crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our times. Each year it kills more people than all the wars of the last century.
The fact is we know how to bring healthcare to every person in the world. We believe every man, woman and child deserves access to healthcare. This is our calling, and we will not stop fighting until it is achieved.
Christian Health Service Corps healthcare professionals work tirelessly to heal the sick and alleviate suffering, all while sharing true love and compassion with every single patient. We are there to serve the people, to minister to them at the time of their greatest need and to shower them with the love of Christ. We believe money should never be the deciding issue of receiving care. We believe every precious soul deserves lifesaving healthcare.Ā
Last year, because of generous gifts from people like you, we accomplished something amazing! We supported our 30 local hospital partners across 26 countries in the provision of care to more than 630,000 patients, including nearly 31,000 lifesaving surgeries, treatment to over 4,400 malnourished children, the delivery of more than 20,000 babies, with more than 4,200 of those through C-sections. In many cases the mother and baby would likely have perished without the C-section. Together, we did all this while also providing training for over 1,100 medical professionals.
We believe this is just the beginning. Our hope is to care for 10 million patients each year, and we believe that together we can see this become a reality! And when you realize that our average cost per patient is less than $10, you can see this is a reachable goal.
If you believe, as we do, that no one should die because they lack access to healthcare, would you please consider giving a gift that will provide lifesaving care, and the gospel, to those who find themselves in such desperate need? It is amazing that, on average, every $10 can provide care for one person by a CHSC physician or healthcare professional. You can literally save the life of a dying child or a young mother for as little as $10. Your gift, whatever the size, will bring them life!Ā Ā
Sincerely,Ā
Greg Seager
CHSC Founder & CEOĀ
