Lo Disengomoka

Our mom suffered a brain hemorrhage in Belgium, and we are trying to get her back to the USA for urgent care as quickly as possible. This has been an incredibly difficult situation for our family. We are about 6,000 miles away, and one of her daughters has already been with her in Belgium for 8 weeks. We need them both back home, and the distance has made an already frightening emergency even harder on all of us. Funds will help cover:

Specialist medical flight to the USA: $185,000

Rehab costs in Belgium: $20,000

Any support for our mom’s return and care would mean so much to our family.

If you are able to donate or share this fundraiser, thank you for helping us bring her and her daughter back home.

Who: Our beloved 77-year-old Mom, known lovingly as Mama Lo.

Where: Currently in critical care in hospital in Belgium following a severe, sudden brain hemorrhage on August 8th 

Why: The insurance company has stopped paying after initial emergency operation. The hospital will stop care without payment of the bills.

Our Mission: Raise $200,000 towards the medical flight and continued vital non-insured specialist care to bring her home.

The Story

Imagine your 77 year old Mom, finally taking a much-deserved trip overseas to visit her sister in Belgium after years apart.

Mama Lo has spent all of her life working, sacrificing and caring for others.

This trip was to be a time to rest, reconnect, laugh, and make sweet memories.

On August 8, our world changed in a heartbeat when our Mom suffered a sudden, catastrophic brain haemorrhage. Just like that, the woman who spent her whole life caring for everyone else was fighting for her life in a hospital bed thousands of miles away from home. Ten weeks later, Mama Lo remains unconscious in a Belgian hospital, thousands of miles from home.

We are her four daughters: Joella, Nadia, Elda and Delhia.

We are living through every family’s worst nightmare, trying to navigate an international medical crisis while desperately searching for a way to bring our mom home to San Diego.

A Daughter Who Cannot Bear to Leave Her Mom

Joella ignored personal financial hardship and is in Belgium so Mom doesn’t have to face her trauma alone. We are all leaning on our faith during the most frightening time of our lives.

Why We Need Your Help Now

Mama Lo’s initial emergency operation in Belgium was covered by insurance, but her insurance no longer covers further much-needed rehabilitation treatment there.

She cannot stay in Belgium but cannot safely travel on a commercial airline.

She needs a dedicated medical air ambulance, with an appropriate medical team and specialist equipment, to bring her safely from Belgium to San Diego. The medical flight alone is estimated to cost more than $180,000. Including associated medical, transportation and logistical expenses, we estimate that over $200,000 will be needed in total. This is our fundraising goal, and we are pursuing charitable medical transport, sponsorship and other assistance to reduce the cost.

Our commitment

Our family has already spent approximately $15,000 dealing with this emergency and is committing our remaining liquid resources towards bringing Mama Lo home. We are putting everything we can into this, our time, money, emotion, love but we cannot bridge the remaining funding gap alone. Returning to the United States is an essential step towards accessing the rehabilitation and ongoing treatment Mama Lo needs. We expect her insurance to cover eligible care in the USA, subject to the applicable coverage and medical arrangements.

After a lifetime spent caring for others, Mama Lo deserves every opportunity to receive the care she needs, surrounded by the family who love her.

Money should not be the barrier that keeps her thousands of miles from home.

Who Is Mama Lo?

Mama Lo is our Mom, a devoted Christian whose faith is expressed through kindness, generosity, and service. She is the kind of woman who will give someone in need her last meal, her last dollar without stopping to ask what she has left for herself. Throughout her life, she has: Quietly supported hospitals, local charities, and anyone in need. Fostered children who needed safety and love, ensuring they had opportunities for a better future. Given generously and helped others without ever expecting recognition.

Look at the photos of our Mum. That is the real Mama Lo- joyful, strong, laughing, and lifting up everyone around her.

She is a mother, a grandmother, a sister and a friend whose life has touched so many people.

She is now fighting for the life she wanted to live. For decades, she has been the person showing up for others. Now, Mama Lo needs us to show up for her.

An Appeal to Our Christian Family

Throughout this crisis, our faith and our prayers together have been a source of strength and comfort.

To our brothers and sisters in Christ, to pastors, church leaders, congregations and Christian communities everywhere, we humbly ask you to stand with our family in this moment of desperate need. Mama Lo has spent her life putting her faith into action, caring for others and giving generously.

Today, she is the one who needs our help. We believe that when one family is struggling, the wider Christian family can come together to carry that burden. Please pray for Mama Lo, share her story with your congregation and community, and, if you are able, consider a donation or a church collection towards her medical flight.

Perhaps your church knows someone who can help fund the flight.

Perhaps a single share will reach a person who can open a door we cannot open ourselves.

We believe in the power of faith, prayer, compassion and people coming together in love.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2

Help Our Grandchildren Bring Their Grandma Home

As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children and hold our families together. Right now, our family needs help beyond what we can provide ourselves. It is difficult to ask, but our need is urgent, and we are asking with all our hearts.

Somewhere between their school days, homework and everyday routines, Mama Lo’s grandchildren are living through a family emergency no child can fix. Their school community can help make a difference with one donation, one fundraiser and one shared story at a time.

To the teachers, staff, parents and students who are part of their daily lives: we are asking you to stand beside them. Help Mama Lo’s grandchildren bring their grandma home.

A school-approved giving day, a classroom coin collection, a family donation or a local business matching contributions could turn a community’s compassion into a journey home. Every dollar raised helps fund the medical transport and care she urgently needs.

For her grand children, she is not simply the woman in a fundraising photograph. She is grandma. A beloved part of our family whose place cannot be filled, and whose absence reaches into our everyday lives.

Together, we can work to bring her closer to the care she needs and the people who love her.

Please donate if you can, share her story, or help organize a school fundraiser. Let these grandchildren see how a community shows up for a family in need.

Five grandchildren. One deeply loved grandma. A school community that can help bring her home.

How You Can Support Mama Lo

1. Donate.

We need funds urgently.

We HAVE to raise $200,000 towards the medical flight and associated expenses. Whether you can give $25, $100, $500 or more, every contribution helps close the gap.

If you are able to make a larger contribution or sponsor part of the flight, your help could make an extraordinary difference.

2. Share Her Story

If you cannot donate, please share this appeal with your family, friends, church, colleagues, WhatsApp groups and social media communities.

We urgently need connections to charitable foundations, medical transport organisations, aviation companies, philanthropists, businesses and anyone who might help fund or reduce the cost of bringing Mama Lo home.

If you are an influencer, journalist, public figure or community leader, please consider helping us reach a wider audience. One share could reach the person who changes everything for Mama Lo.

3. Pray

Please pray for Mama Lo’s safety, comfort and the best possible neurological recovery; for wisdom for the medical team caring for her; and for strength for Joella and her sisters.

Please also pray that the right people, resources and opportunities come together to make her journey home possible.

A Family That Belongs Together

We are doing everything we can to bring her home, but we cannot do it alone. Please help us close the funding gap.

Our Mom has spent her life pouring love into others.

We are praying that some of that love finds its way back to her now.

Every message, prayer, share, and donation means more to our family than words can express.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for wrapping your arms around our family at this traumatic time and helping us save our Mom and bring her home where she belongs.

One Mama Lo.

Four daughters.

Five gorgeous grandchildren.

A family that belongs together

With all our love and gratitude,

Joella, Nadia, Elda & Delhia

Family and friends of Lo Disengomoka are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a catastrophic illness. Lo has chosen to fundraise with Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.