Success stories drive Dr. Yusuf Mahat to continue his work providing medical care to some of the most vulnerable populations in Kenya.

“At one of our recent clinics, we had 11 patients come in who were totally blind because of a problem that could be treated with a minor surgery,” says Dr. Mahat, who organizes medical camps for poor, elderly, homeless and incarcerated people after he completes his day job. “Our clinic allowed us to identify these people, treat them, and now they can see. The fact that you can give a fellow human being something life-changing like that, it is more than words can actually explain.”

On June 10, 2023, Embrace Relief joined with Dr. Mahat, the chairman of the Light Academy Alumni Associaton, as well as other partner organizations – including the Light Academy, Omeriye Foundation, Kenya Red Cross, the Lions Club, and Kenya’s state-run National Health Insurance Fund – to fund a free medical clinic for detainees at a prison in Nakuru, Kenya.

This program supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3, “Good Health and Well-Being.” Access to quality medical care is a human right, and it is particularly important to ensure that the most vulnerable people have access. Eliminating communicable diseases wherever they can be found will keep us all safe in the future.

“It’s extremely vital,” Dr. Mahat says. “I work at a government health facility in this town, and from time to time we will receive patients from the prison. By the time they come to us, they usually are at an advanced stage of disease, and we are unable to do anything to help. But when we are able to bring our medical camp to them, we can identify diseases earlier, we can communicate with the detainees and wardens on proper hygiene to prevent the spread of disease. And so this is an important and noble event that is going to have a large impact.”

Funding and logistical support from organizations like Embrace Relief and others like it can make an enormous difference in the lives of people in difficult circumstances around the world. The camps organized by Dr. Mahat provide treatments and diagnoses for cataracts, diabetes, cancers, and other chronic ailments. Embrace Relief is dedicated to partnering with our friends in countries like Mali, Kenya and Tanzania to help provide medical care for thousands of people who would otherwise be unable to afford or access it.

Seeing The Humanity

For Dr. Mahat, who has spent the past three years building up relationships with larger partner organizations to help organize these camps, providing care to the most vulnerable is what he considers his life’s calling.

“Diabetes and hypertension are skyrocketing in Kenya right now, as are other chronic diseases like cancers as well,” he says. “There are so many people who need help. We recently had two female patients who walked into our camp off the street. We performed cancer screenings on them, and we discovered that they both had early-stage cervical cancer. They’re now cancer-free.”

Partnerships with organizations like Embrace Relief allow these camps to happen more frequently, increasing the likelihood of a person receiving life-saving care. This support can take the form of funding for staff, equipment and medicine; of volunteers providing extra pairs of hands; and of food to help keep the camp running.

But at the heart of it all are the people. Dr. Mahat explained to Embrace Relief how organizing these medical camps has allowed him to see firsthand the true spirit of humanity in his patients, whether they are impoverished, aged, or incarcerated.

“Beyond the physical ailments we treated, it was the emotional connection we formed with the inmates that made a lasting impact for me,” Dr. Mahat said following the June 10 camp at the Nakuru prison. “We talked about their dreams, aspirations, and the regrets that led them astray. In their vulnerability, I saw their humanity, and it shattered any preconceived judgments I might have had. It was a testament to the human capacity for strength and growth, even in the most challenging circumstances.”

For too many people in Uganda, medical care is an unaffordable luxury, even when treatment is urgent and necessary.

Kazibwe Muzamiru, of the Nile Humanitarian Development Agency, described the desperate circumstances of one local man near the eastern city of Jinja, who suffered a fractured arm in a car accident three years ago. Because the man lives in poverty, he has been unable to fix his broken bones. He has lived with unimaginable pain, his arm dangling and useless, and with nowhere to turn.

“People like this man, they don’t have money to pay their bills and receive medical treatment,” Muzamiru said. “And there are many people like him in this area. They are getting sick, or they are injured, and they aren’t going to the hospital. They need our support.”

During the weekend of June 10-11, 2023, that man was provided the support he needed. He was one of the more than 1,000 people who received free medical care at a camp made possible by Embrace Relief’s partnership with the Nile Humanitarian Development Agency.

Funding for the camp was provided by an Embrace Relief Group FUNdraiser created by eight high school students through the Bright Choice Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Houston, Texas, dedicated to providing mentorship and educational programs for children. Through hard work and communication, the Bright Choice students raised more than $13,000 to provide crucial relief for vulnerable people in this region of eastern Uganda.

In addition to the life-changing effects they had on the visitors to the medical camp, Bright Choice’s Group FUNdraiser also supported:

• The construction of a water well, providing an essential supply of clean water for more than 1,000 residents in a local village;
• The delivery of 150 food packages to families in need; and
• The organization of a community dinner for 250 orphaned children.

Additionally, the Bright Choice students made the long flight from Texas to Uganda in order to visit the communities they supported, and to see firsthand the impact they made. This is an opportunity afforded to all Embrace Relief Group FUNdraisers.

“We were very grateful for the services of the students who came here from Texas,” Muzamiru said. “And we thank Embrace Relief so much for the generous support to Uganda and other countries. It is needed very greatly, and will continue to be needed greatly. It is about helping humanity.”

Inside The Medical Camp: ‘Thrilled to Help People’

When word got out among the population of the region around Jinja that the medical camp would be opening, crowds of grateful people responded. Within a few hours of the camp’s opening on June 10, Muzamiru said, the camp had already treated nearly 400 patients with a variety of symptoms. Some suffered from physical injuries requiring surgery, like the man with the three-year arm fracture. Some had open wounds that had gone untreated for months. Still others suffered from acute or chronic diseases requiring medication including malaria, typhoid, and syphilis.

The medical camp was prepared for all of these cases.

“We have four doctors here, in four different rooms, with different specialties,” Muzamiru said Friday afternoon, as the camp was in full swing. “We are able to have doctors examine each person, give their advice, and proceed to the pharmacy if it is required. There is also a lab, so that if we need to address any complications, we can investigate.”

This is the second medical camp that the agency has been able to hold for the people of this region this year. The agency relies on partner organizations like Embrace Relief, whose invaluable support and funding directly provides a dramatic quality-of-life boost for hundreds and thousands of people.

And, Muzamiru notes, the need for quality medical care is so great among the impoverished people of eastern Uganda, making that support even more critical.

“Whenever we have the chance to do this, we are thrilled to help people,” Muzamiru said. “You can see the effect it has, because when people come here to receive care, and they return with medicine and treatment, they tell people back home about our camp. Once our camp starts, there are always people coming in search of care. So there is always the hope that we can do more of these camps, and have them last longer.”

About Group FUNdraising

Group FUNdraising with Embrace Relief is one highly effective way to support causes like the recent medical camp in Jinja. Starting a Group FUNdraiser with Embrace Relief requires as few as three people to get started.

Pick a cause from any of Embrace Relief’s ongoing programs – or, like the Bright Choice Foundation, your fundraiser can support multiple causes in the same geographic area – sign up through our website, and then get started raising money. Once you reach your fundraising goal, you’ll have the opportunity to travel to see firsthand the impact your project has made.

Completing a Group FUNdraiser will have an immense impact on the lives of real people, just as it did for the people who received medical care at the camp in Uganda. It can also benefit you by boosting your skills, creating closer community ties, making your resume or college application stand out, and helping you grow as a person.

To learn more about Group FUNdraising with Embrace Relief, check out our Frequently Asked Questions page. And to get started on your own project, fill out the sign-up form below:

Embrace Relief is thrilled to announce the success of our second-annual H2Ow Far Can You Walk 5K Walkathon to raise money and awareness for clean water in Africa!

Our in-person walkathon event welcomed dozens of guests on a sunny, gusty Sunday morning, May 21, at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ, while thousands more pledged their support through a partnership with the Sweatcoin app.

Proceeds from the 5K Walkathon will support Embrace Relief’s Fountains of Hope program, which since 2021 has reconstructed more than 150 broken or abandoned water wells in the African countries of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, providing clean water to tens of thousands of vulnerable people. Fountains of Hope is one aspect of Embrace Relief’s Clean Water Initiative, which is currently providing more than 800,000 people in Africa with clean drinking water. A portion of the proceeds will also support the relief efforts for victims of the February earthquakes in Turkey in Syria.

“Today was a great event for a great cause,” said Embrace Relief CEO Osman Dulgeroglu. “We are thrilled to be back at Liberty State Park and to share this experience with all of the people who came out. Everyone who supports this cause is making an incredible impact on the lives of people in Africa who are not fortunate enough to have access to clean water. We look forward to organizing this 5K next year and continuing to help as many people as we can.”

‘A beautiful thing’

Guests began arriving at the event site shortly after 8:30 a.m. Sunday, with turnout eventually exceeding the number of walkers from the inaugural 5K in 2022. They were welcomed by a host of volunteers, who graciously gave their time and energy to the cause. Their duties included setting up the event stage, registering guests, handing out free food and water, and encouraging walkers to take selfies against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor.

Prior to the walk, many guests also took part in “The Challenge,” an interactive area in which they could walk 50 yards while carrying 30-pound water cans. This exercise is meant to evoke the reality for many women and girls in water-scarce Africa, who must walk for miles each day – typically carrying twice as much weight – to fetch water for their families.

The event then began at 9:45 with remarks from Dana Coppola, Embrace Relief project coordinator, and Dulgeroglu. They welcomed a pair of guest speakers: Lauren Brzozowski, a bobsled pilot and 2026 Winter Olympics hopeful for Team USA;, and Jersey City Ward F City Councilman Frank E. Gilmore, whose jurisdiction includes Liberty State Park.

“Everyone who is here today is showing their humanity,” Councilman Gilmore said during his remarks. “This is a beautiful thing. We’re all here as one, joining together to help our fellow people. As an elected official, as an African American, and more importantly, as a human being, I’m proud to be here today to support our brothers and sisters in Africa with this clean water cause.”

The walk began shortly after 10 a.m., with the crowd filing down a walkway beside the Hudson River, eventually looping around the southern tip of Liberty State Park, near Flag Plaza, before returning just over an hour later.

Throughout the day on May 21, more than 12,000 people worldwide joined the walkathon virtually through the Sweatcoin app, pledging their steps and virtual currency in support of the clean water cause. Additionally, more than 165,000 Sweatcoin users have joined the “30 Billion Step Challenge,” an initiative running through May 31 that also supports the Fountains of Hope program.

About The H2Ow Far Can You Walk 5K Walkathon

The idea for a 5K Walkathon for clean water is a reflection of the harsh reality that millions of people in water-scarce parts of Africa live through every day. In countries like Chad, Nigeria and Cameroon, women and children are tasked with collecting water for their families each day, traveling many miles per day to reach distant sources of water. Often, this water is found in unprotected rivers, lakes and ponds, and carries diseases that kill millions of people – a large portion of which are children under the age of 5 – each year.

Embrace Relief is addressing this crisis by building and reconstructing water wells in these countries, taking advantage of central Africa’s vast resources of underground freshwater to ease this burden and reduce disease, suffering, poverty and women’s inequality. As of May 2023, Embrace Relief has built and reconstructed more than 800 wells, ensuring that more than 800,000 people have the opportunity to thrive.

Our annual 5K Walkathon, which supports the rebuilding of broken wells, is therefore an opportunity for us to walk now so that people in Africa won’t have to in the future.

About Embrace Relief

Embrace Relief is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Fairfield, New Jersey, whose mission is to deliver research-based, sustainable solutions to achieve immediate and lasting improvements in situations of humanitarian emergency and improving the quality of life of individuals and communities enduring chronic hardships.

Embrace Relief has grown over the years to become an internationally recognized relief organization that works to bring relief to people in need regardless of race, religion, or gender to improve their quality of life. Since 2013, we have provided aid to millions of people under the guidance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with the overall aim of reducing global poverty and suffering.