The downward cycle of extreme poverty and the lack of professional health care has created desperate conditions in the village of Rotifunk and the Moyamba District of Sierra Leone. Mothers and children face overwhelming health challenges from infectious diseases — like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections — due to impoverished living conditions that include scarcity of clean water, malnutrition, poor housing, and near non-existent sanitation and medical care systems.

There’s an estimated 150 medical doctors serving a population of 7.4 million people in Sierra Leone. That’s one medical doctor per 50,000 citizens, as compared to one medical doctor per 392 citizens in the United States. Sierra Leone is now recovering from its second Ebola epidemic since the year 2000. The last outbreak took 3,995 lives in this region. The lack of doctors, hospitals, prenatal and preventive medical care, and health education have resulted in these alarming statistics

• Mortality Rate Children Under 5 — 10.0% (as compared to the U.S. — 0.6%)
• Maternal Mortality Rate — 1,360 out of 100,000 live births (the worst in the world)
• Top 3 Diseases — Malaria, Diarrhea, Respiratory infections
• Top 4 Causes — Malnutrition, Lack of Medical Care, Poor Sanitation, Pollution

_{*Health and poverty statistics are from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication, but no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding accuracy.}