Surgical Success Stories - Amarech and Ayelech! (#358 & #359)

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Amarech is 50 years old and she had a very severe prolapse although she just noticed it five months ago. She’s widowed and has given birth to seven children who have all survived. Her surgery went very well!

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Ayelech is 40 years and has three living children after giving birth to six. She’s widowed and has been suffering from her prolapse for the past three years. It had become quite severe but is now a thing of the past and not of the present or the future. Her smile is even bigger after her surgery!

Surgical Success Stories - Shitaye and Bafe! (#356 & #357)

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Shitaye, who is 45., was actually pregnant 13 times but now only has six living children. She’s married and has been dealing with her prolapse over the past year. Fortunately she caught her problem fairly early and it was able to be repaired!

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Bafe, who is 55 and married, has eight children, all of whom are alive. Her prolapse had been present for 10 years and had gotten quite severe. But it’s gone now and she is so so grateful!

Surgical Success Stories - Amarech (x2) and Bizunesh! (#353, #354 & #355)

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Amarech, who is only 30 years old, had been suffering from her prolapse for one year. She lives with her husband and her five children that are still living after having given birth to seven. She has quite a busy household and is now prolapse free!

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This patient’s name is also Amarech and she is 65. She’s widowed and gave birth to four children, all of whom are still alive. She has suffered from her prolapse for the past year and that is now gone! She’s also had a lot of trouble with her left eye for about six years and the doctors made arrangements for her to see their eye doctor before returning home.

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Bizunesh is 55 years of age. Like the others, her prolapse has been present for one year. She’s widowed and lives with one of her five children. All of her children have survived childhood. She was so, so pleased to be free of her prolapse!

Surgical Success Stories - Marta & Jante + One! (#350, #351 & #352)

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Marta had a more challenging surgery than most. She is 50 years old and gave birth to seven children, five of whom are still living. Her prolapse had been present for five years and had become quite severe. We keep her in our thoughts and prayers as she fully recovers!


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The doctors did not send the name of this beautiful patient who had travelled quite far to come and see them in Soddo. She is widowed and had very severe prolapse. She was brought in by her daughter who had heard they were able to help people with this problem. She has given birth to four children and they are all still alive. Her prolapse had been present for four years but is now a part of her history, not her present or her future! She did well after her surgery and made the long journey home to rest and recover.

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Jatane had very severe prolapse and she stated that she started having trouble 20 years ago… 20 years! She’s 50 and widowed. She has given birth to 5 children and 4 of them have survived. She lives with her oldest son who accompanied her. When asked if she planned on remarrying, she just lovingly looked over at her son and said that he takes good care of her and why would she want to remarry? It was a sweet moment. Her surgery went extremely well!

Surgical Success Stories - Bantale, Bizunesh & Aribe (#347, #348 & #349)

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Bantale, who is 60, had a severe prolapse hat had developed over just one year. She has given birth to five children and three of them are still living. She did great postoperatively and is now resting at home.

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Bizunesh is 45 years old. She had eight children and five of them are still alive. She had suffered from her prolapse for one year and is now free from this trouble! She was able to go home after a couple of days with in the hospital.

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Aribe, who is 55, has given birth to three children and all of them are still alive. Her prolapse had been present for three years and she was able to return home the same day of her surgery!

Surgical Success Stories - Yalise, Zerome & Hirut (#344, #345 & #346)

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Yalise is 68 years old. She gave birth to five children but only one is still living. After surgeries the doctors report that she is truly a changed woman!

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Zerome is 65 years old and gave birth to nine children and six are still living. Her prolapse had been present for two years and under anesthesia was more severe than was expected. But she did well and is now resting at home.

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Hirut is 65 years old. She gave birth to six children and five are still alive. Her prolapse had become quite severe over the three years that she suffered from it but she is now prolapse free!

Surgical Success Stories - Meselch & Gete (#342 & #343)

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Meselch is 50 years old, married and has five children. She’s had her prolapse for two years and that amazing smile has definitely grown even bigger after her successful surgery!

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Gete is also 50 years old. She has been pregnant 10 times and has eight living children. She suffered from her prolapse for three years but is now prolapse free.

Surgical Success Stories - Boule & Lucy (#339 & #340)

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The doctors had the pleasure of operating on Boule, who is 45 and has had prolapse for the last four months. They were able to address her prolapse as well as tie her tubes as she is done with child bearing and getting pregnant again might cause her prolapse to return. She has six children and she was accompanied by her husband! Everyone has to wear masks now but they were able to coax her into taking her’s off for the photo.

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Dinkenesh (Lucy), who is 50, has dealt with her prolapse for over a year. She is divorced and was pregnant eight times but only has two living children. She is so glad to now be free of this problem!

A Powerful Pair: The making of Gems & Java Home Edition

Ever turned a 650-person fundraiser that takes 4,000 volunteer hours to produce into a totally virtual event?

Yeah, neither had we.

If you watched Gems & Java Home Edition, you know that it was a polished, professional, high-quality show that looked like a fundraiser produced by an organization with many more resources than ours!! We owe so much of that incredible result to a very generous pair of industry experts who helped to craft this virtual event from scratch.

Dave in his gorgeous home studio.

Dave in his gorgeous home studio.

Dave Wettlaufer, who owns River Valley Studio, and Bob Breen, owner of Armor Pro Audio Visual, are the dynamic duo that gave of their time and talent at a VERY discounted rate to help us create Gems & Java Home Edition.

“I grew up with the idea of helping to support people in other parts of the world. It’s something you do,” Dave told us.

“It’s something I really enjoy doing. Because I’m retired, I don’t have to extract every last dollar to try to live on.”

Dave had worked with us before, producing videos from an in-person Gems & Java event. We connected Bob and Dave and the dream team was born! They tell a funny story about the way they met, just recently, during the coronavirus pandemic. Bob was outfitting a church for digital services, and found that the facility was perfectly set up with audio hook-ups within the walls. It was a job done, years earlier, by Dave!

Bob Breen working the board.

Bob Breen working the board.

Bob was so tickled, he sent Dave an e-mail to say thanks.

“Fate and the good Lord put us together,” Bob said. “This is so fun.”

These two men spent hours and hours and hours filming, editing and producing our show to get it just right.

They don’t see it as a sacrifice. They were excited to contribute their services.

“It’s awesome to have the opportunity to use my talents - or whatever they are - to genuinely benefit somebody else,” Bob said. “It’s such a great organization because it is just people directly trying to make a difference in the most efficient way possible.”

“This is fun for us - in addition to all the things we believe are important about the work.”
— Bob Breen, producer

He was particularly drawn in by the low overhead costs of our organization, since we run 100% on volunteer power.

Dave said that was an appealing factor for him, too.

“You’re all volunteers. Not to denigrate any others, but some have pretty fancy buildings,” he said of other non-profit organizations.

Both Bob and Dave have spent their careers working with music and video. Dave owned a small business, and has seen several waves of technology - from cassettes to CDs to digital files!

Bob spent several years working in “big rock n’roll” scene in Los Angeles before he bought Armor Pro Audio Visual.

He worked on a David Lee Roth record and “had Motley Crue laugh at me when looking for adaptor cables,” Bob said with a chuckle.

Bob Breen

Bob Breen

Dave, who’s now retired, is a classic lifelong learner.

“It’s fun to learn new aspects of those things,” he said.

In addition to being talent professionals that donated their skills through greatly reduced rates, these two men are a joy to work with. They’re patient, flexible, and funny!

We could not have done Gems & Java Home Edition without Bob and Dave and we are beyond grateful for their support of our work.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Bob and Dave!!