Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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Local NGO 'Mersal' Helps Kids with Rare Genetic Disorder with Trips to Fayoum

While providing them with free medical care goes a long way to lighten these burdens, Mersal has gone an extra step further by launching an initiative to take families with PKU on frequent trips to Fayoum.

Staff Writer

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare genetic disorder that causes a build up of an amino acid called phenylalanine, leading to seizures, intellectual disabilities and a variety of mental disorders. While PKU lasts for a lifetime, it can be treated through careful dieting from birth, limiting one's intake to a number of vegetables, fruits, bread, pasta and cereals, while avoiding meat, chicken, dairy and bean. As Egyptian NGO Mersal knows, this alone can stand as a delicate challenge to parents who must carefully adhere to these guidelines for their children. While providing them with free medical care goes a long way to lighten these burdens, Mersal has gone an extra step further by launching an initiative to take families with PKU on frequent trips to Fayoum. There, Mersal helps these families enjoy the beautiful city, distribute free food amongst locals, and collect money to buy their PKU patients the food that fits their necessary diet.


Mersal has begun collecting donations for food packages to be distributed amongst underprivileged PKU patients every month. The price for the food items in these packages is EGP 500 for children 5 years or younger, EGP 750 for children between the ages of 6-12 and EGP 1,100 for children 12 years and over.


To make a donation, call 19340, or donate online via mersal.ngo.org.