Some stories don’t arrive with headlines or breaking‑news banners. They arrive quietly, carried by the voice of a mother who has lost everything except her will to keep her children alive. Madleen is one of those mothers…just 25 years old, raising three young children in the ruins of a life that once held stability, dignity, and hope.
Her children are five, three, and one. Her youngest, only a year old, is fighting severe kidney failure. His survival depends on weekly lab tests, sterile water, special food, diapers, and infant formula. He cannot eat canned or processed foods; even a single bite could make him dangerously ill. Every day is a tightrope walk between scarcity and catastrophe.
Before the war, her husband worked in construction. They had a home. They had a car. They had a future. Now, they have none of those things.
Their home is gone.
Their livelihood is gone.
Their safety is gone.
Today, twelve family members, including Madleen, her husband, and their three children, are crammed into a partially destroyed room in her husband’s grandmother’s house. The walls are cracked. The roof is unstable. Privacy is impossible. Comfort is unimaginable.
There are days when they go two full days without food. Days when her baby has no diapers, and she must use cloth instead. Days when she must choose between sterile water for her sick child or feeding her older two. These are choices no parent should ever face.
And yet, she writes with hope:
“Please, help us survive. Your donation will help me care for my sick baby and keep my children alive.”
Her last donation came 21 days ago — nearly three weeks without support, in a situation where every day is an emergency. For families like hers, time is not measured in weeks or months. It is measured in meals, in diapers, in doses of medicine, in the fragile stability of a single day.
Her children are innocent. They deserve safety, nourishment, and the chance to grow up with dignity. They deserve a childhood not defined by rubble and hunger.
Right now, the only lifeline they have is us..this community, this circle of readers who have shown again and again that compassion is not abstract. It is real. It is active. It is lifesaving.
Every contribution becomes food, medicine, diapers, sterile water, and hope.
Every act of generosity becomes a shield around her children.
And there is another way to help, one that costs nothing but can change everything:
Share this article.
Share it widely. Share it boldly.
Every share is another pair of eyes, another open heart, another chance for this family to receive the support they desperately need.
In moments like this, visibility is survival.
Madleen ends her message with a prayer:
“May God reward you with all goodness and never let the reward of those who do good be lost.”
For those who have given before…thank you.
For those who feel moved to give again, your generosity truly matters.
For those reading this for the first time, your support could be the reason her children make it through another week.
This is not charity. This is solidarity. This is humanity.
And right now, Madleen’s family needs it more than ever.
You can donate to Madleen: https://chuffed.org/project/137860-help-madleen
You can also contact Madleen directly through her Twitter account: @MdlynM62689