A need for
school & play

Her brother built them a home. She’s building them a childhood.

I’m Heidi — I just turned 18, and I’m a senior at Millard North High School in Omaha, Nebraska. I’m raising money to build a school and playground at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania — a place where children can keep learning and simply be kids while they go through long cancer treatments far from home.

For a child with cancer in Tanzania, treatment often means months away from everything familiar — their school, their friends, their village, the ordinary routines that make childhood feel normal. Many families travel hundreds of miles to reach KCMC, some from neighboring countries like Kenya. It’s one of only a handful of cancer centers serving a nation of more than 60 million people. The medical care there grows every year — but healing isn’t only about medicine. It’s also about having somewhere to read, to learn, to laugh, and to play, even in the middle of the hardest fight of your life.

This cause runs in my family. My dad is an oncologist, and over the years his close friendship with the physicians at KCMC opened our eyes to how hard it is to deliver cancer care in East Africa. That’s what led my brother, a few years ago, to raise money to help build a hostel for cancer patients — a Ronald McDonald House–style home that can now shelter up to 100 families at a time, so no one has to leave treatment early for lack of a place to stay. He gave families a home. I want to give their children back their childhood — a place to learn, and a place to play.

I saw all of this firsthand on a trip with my family, when we spent time with the children on the cancer wards at KCMC. Many of them — especially the kids with leukemia — have to stay for months, sometimes more than a year, to finish their treatment. That means a year or more away from everything childhood is supposed to be: away from their classrooms, away from friends, away from the simple freedom to run and play. One afternoon, we got to play soccer with them, and I watched something so simple fill the whole day with happiness and smiles. That’s when I knew I could do more.

The money we raise will build a dedicated school and playground on the KCMC grounds, so children in prolonged treatment can keep up with their education and have a safe, joyful space to play.

And every dollar goes remarkably far. A teacher in this region earns around $200 a month, and the direct cost of a child’s schooling is less than a dollar a day — so even a small gift can keep a child learning and playing — and the smiles and laughs come free.

“Any child fighting cancer still deserves to learn, to play, and to hope.”