Little Josephine Needs Our Help!

Would you take five minutes out of your day to help a stranger?

I hope so. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Madagascar. I did a lot of research prior to the trip and found a guide, Lanto Andriansolo, who had 5 stars on Trip Advisor. Knowing how incredibly poor the Malagasy people are I asked if Lanto if he needed or wanted anything from the U.S. I expected him to ask for a pair of Levi’s or Nike’s. Nope! He asked for old cell phones to donate to the staff at an orphanage. I had a wonderful trip and let him know I’d be back to see the Avenue of the Baobabs. I now have another reason…

During Covid, I reached out to see how he and his family were doing. Knowing full well, it wasn’t good. How could it be for a father of 3 whose livelihood depended on tourism? He told me he’d sold everything he possibly could to put food on the table and to keep his kids in school. I let him know about GoFundMe and that I’d help with setting it up. I was certain many of his past clients would donate. He didn’t take me up on the offer. That was Nov. 2020.

Jump forward – Dec. 7, 2023.

Lanto was visiting extended family in the north and while eating lunch at a local restaurant he saw a little girl playing and clearly in need of medical attention. He said to himself “In my heart I cannot accept this. So, many have looked away. I can’t.” He asked the owner of the restaurant about the little girl; the owner introduced him to little Josephine. Lanto went on to meet Josephines family and visited their home – he wanted to learn as much as he could.

Josephine’s family are rice farmers and she’s the 5th of 6 children. The average monthly salary in Madagascar is $43 dollars a month; that’s $516 a year. Can you imagine? Josephines family makes well below that and cannot afford to help their daughter. The family is illiterate – the children do not go to school; they must help farm for rice. Lanto immediately arranged for her to see a doctor. An echocardiogram revealed a massive tumor and a severely damaged kidney. She needed surgery immediately, but there was no money. This is when Lanto reached out to me – he remembered that I mentioned GoFundMe, but it doesn’t exist in Madagascar so, he asked for my help. Of course, I would help and thought raising $5,000 would be easy. It hasn’t been, but I’m not giving up – I can’t.

Lanto and I corresponded many times over the next few days. He shared our communications with the doctor. Luckily, so much trust was developed between Lanto and the doctor, he agreed to do the surgery and get the money after the surgery and a date was set. Well, Josephine took a nosedive, and an emergency surgery was performed on Dec 12th. Thank God, they didn’t wait, not only did they remove her kidney and a soccer ball sized tumor they found her appendix ruputured. Waiting one more day could have meant death to sweet Josephine.

Josephine is doing well and may be released as soon as Dec. 29th. Today is the day! She's being released! Yeah!

Lanto continues to stay with his relatives and visits Josephine every day. What a gift he’s been to this family! They could not have done this without his help with the paperwork and the commitment to pay the hospital bills. I’m sure he misses his wife and children desperately who are a 15-hour drive away, but he vowed to stay until Josehine is home with her family. We need more Lanto’s in this world.

UPDATE: Lanto will be going home today (12/29/23) to see his family for the first time in nearly a month. His words: I will go home tonight and receive the new year with my family.

So, I asked if you would take 5 minutes to help a stranger – will you? Please donate to Josephines medical fund. https://gofund.me/f3e0143c And please share my post - by sharing, it may help me increase donations by 3x. If half of my Facebook friends donated just $6.12, we can clear Josephines hospital debt. I will continue to share photos and videos as I get them. And when I go back to see the Baobabs, Lanto is going to bring me to meet Josephine. I will share those pictures as well.

If you have questions about the legitimacy of this, please reach out to me. This is not a scam and I have not been hacked.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Kelli Bennett