Stacia Teele, a documentary filmmaker, was recently in Afghanistan working on her latest project when she discovered a circus school had been started for Afghan children. After 23 years of devastating war the two Danish founders felt it was important to give the Afghan children a chance to sing and dance and laugh. The children take their skills and perform for local schools – where the students cheer and laugh hysterically at the educational comedy skits.
She met many amazing children, but one really made an impression on Stacia – a young girl named Vasila.
Vasila’s family is very poor. They are squatters who
live with six families in a bombed out house that is
riddled with bullet holes. They have no electricity or
plumbing . The eight members of her family live in one
room that just has two pillows on the floor – all of
them sleep lined up with their heads on the pillow and
their legs on the floor. The twenty or so kids that
live in the house have no toys. They only had one doll
that they shared between them – a little plastic doll
that had no arms and no legs.
Vasila’s father told Stacia of Vasila’s illness. She
was born with a heart defect that allows unoxygenated
blood to circulate throughout her body. Heart surgery
can usually repair this defect, but it is not
available in Afghanistan.
When Stacia returned to the United States she was
determined to find help for Vasila and the other
chidlren of Afghanistan who had heart disease and were
unable to get treatment. She contacted Project Kids
Worldwide and together they created the Vasila’s Heart
Fund to raise money to treat Afghan children who are
suffering from congenital or acquired heart defects.
Vasila’s Heart Fund aims to bring these children to
the United States for diagnosis and treatment and to
help train and equip cardiologists in Afghanistan. To contribute to this effort, please click here.
