Do you believe in magic?

Each year our sister, Dr. Allyson McKenney, in partnership with Access Health Africa and the SeriousFun Children's Network, helps organize a camp program in Malawi for children living with chronic illnesses.

She moved to Malawi in 2011 with the Texas Children's Hospital Global Health Corps and works at the Baylor College of Medicine-Children's Foundation Malawi. She works tirelessly to improve the lives of children and adolescents across the country.

Camp is one of her passions and reasons she continues working and living in Malawi. She has raised over $200,000 over the past 5 years for camp programs from various international donors. Camp costs about $200 per camper with all expenses paid for each kid (transport to camp, t-shirts, toiletries, food, accommodation, etc) including on-going medical care while at camp. Campers come for one week at a time and are recruited from medical facilities all over the country.

For many of the campers, this is the first time they will leave their villages. They are awed by Malawi's beauty and an opportunity to explore their country.

At camp, magic happens. Campers realize that they are not alone in the world in dealing with their chronic illness and leave camp with a sense of hope. Campers take the magic of camp back to their villages, families, and school.

Malawi, known affectionately as the “Warm Heart of Africa,” is one of the poorest countries in the world. Attending camp becomes a once in a lifetime opportunity for these kids. As they learn to live with their illness, camp is truly life changing, and often life-saving for them.

The camp program in Malawi is looking to serve 320 campers this year, 160 who have already attended the first 2 sessions and 160 who remain. We are desperately looking for funds to sponsor the remaining 160 children.

We know we have 160 friends who can give $200 to send a child to camp (or even 500 friends who could contribute $50). Because our sister is putting the camp program on right now, we want to try to raise the money over the next week for her. We know we can do it!!!

Do you believe in magic? We do!

PS Because of the sensitive nature of the work our sister does, we will not post any photos of kids who attend her camp or specifics about the camp program. But we promise the kids are precious and full of smiles and laughter.