DID YOU KNOW? In many developing countries, people are denied health care or receive poor quality health care because of unaffordable fees. Stigma and discrimination deny poor and vulnerable people, especially women, their right to health.

Millions face catastrophic health emergencies on a daily basis. Usually, however, the cause is preventable or at least treatable — if only they had the money to access health care. But most of the ultra-poor never get the medical help they need. 

For example, 145 women of childbearing age and 2,300 children under 5 years of age die daily in Nigeria. Women die in childbirth, children die of malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia — all treatable conditions with proper medical care. It is estimated that 76 percent of Ethiopian women live in rural areas and do not have access to health care because of poverty and the lack of transportation.

After hearing so many stories of people who are struggling to get basic medical help but are turned away because they lack insurance, money or are the victims of cultural indifference, God has prompted Julie’s Heart Cry to start the Emergency Medical Fund.

This new fund will help people like Gloria, a 17-year-old who was raped and is now eight months pregnant. It will pay the $150 for cancer treatment for the woman who couldn’t afford it and was turned away by one hospital after the other. It will cover the cost to set a young refugee boy’s leg after he broke it fleeing rebels who invaded his village. 

Meeting people’s physical needs is the best way to open the door to meeting their spiritual needs. Showing the love of Christ softens even the hardest hearts as they wonder why someone halfway across the globe cares about them.

Please join Julie’s Heart Cry in extending a helping hand to people who have so little by making a donation today. For what most of us spend on a nice dinner out … we can change a person’s future.