Hemophilia is a devastating inherited blood disorder that can cause severe pain, crippling, and even death when untreated. It is estimated that 400,000 people suffer from hemophilia around the globe, but only 25 percent of these patients have access to the resources they need to stay healthy.
Imagine, for just one moment, living with hemophilia. Consider the uncertainties: an ordinary day can turn into a life-or-death emergency from an unexpected bleed. To survive you need things as simple as electricity, refrigeration, clean water, transportation, a treatment center, and life-saving clotting factor (treatment). Fortunately, if you live in a developed country, you have the resources to take care of the bleed. Though prohibitively expensive, government subsidies and insurance can assist in your healthcare.
Now imagine you have hemophilia in a poor country, where your family is lucky to earn $3 a day. For people living in poverty, the burden of a bleeding disorder is magnified. Not only is accessing clotting factor close to impossible, people often struggle to afford public transportation to the hospital to get care, or to buy ice, bandages, or painkillers to bring some relief.
Since hemophilia is a rare disorder (1 in every 5,000), governments and social agencies tend not to purchase clotting factor. Poor patients must depend on donations, which may or may not be available, when a life-threatening bleed occurs.
Save One Life offers direct financial assistance to children and youth who suffer the double burden of a bleeding disorder and poverty to help them improve the quality of their lives and become productive adults. Founded in 2001 by Laurie Kelley, mother to a son with hemophilia, Laurie’s vision was to build a humanitarian bridge by raising awareness and encouraging families with greater resources and adequate healthcare to extend a compassionate hand.
Based in Groveland, MA, Save One Life assists more than 1,500 beneficiaries in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, and Uganda. Their programs help children meet their basic needs, support youth to go to college or receive vocational training, aid families with income-generating activities, and give children the joy of attending hemophilia camp.
This nonprofit assists youth who have hemophilia A and B. They also serve children with other factor deficiencies such as von Willebrand disease, Glanzmann Thrombasthenia, and functional platelet disorders.
