BOSSIER CITY, LA (KSLA) -
A Centenary College student is credited with saving the life of a young girl during a summer internship in Ghana. Tia Landrum came home to family and friends in Bossier City on Thursday where she shared her story.
Landrum, who wants to be a doctor, went on a summer medical internship for a month in Ghana. While she was there, she snapped a photo of a witch doctor and spotted a small girl in the background.
"We found her, and her entire community had given up on her because she didn't belong there. She had been abandoned as an orphan girl, and she had not been fed or given proper water for over a year," said Landrum.
The 10-year-old girl weighed only 30 pounds. She was orphaned, injured, and dying. Landrum didn't know her name, but decided to call her Grace.
"She stared at me, and she focused on my eyes, and she held my hand and gripped it," said Landrum.
While the other interns at the clinic went on a safari for a week, Landrum stayed behind to care for Grace. She used her own allowance to pay for her care, but she knew that she would have to leave soon and wanted to make sure the young girl was still looked after. She posted the picture of Grace on Facebook, and when her friends and family saw it, they wanted to help too.
"I looked at the picture, and I stopped everything. It was almost like a freight train just going bam, and I looked at the picture and I just started crying," said Heather Bloom, a family friend.
Landrum set up a website to get donations, and within just a few weeks she had already raised more than $6000.
"Grace was really very fortunate that we had people willing to rally and donate very quickly. If we hadn't, she couldn't have survived. When we first took her into the hospital, they would have abandoned her case after the first 48 hours if we weren't able to fund the rest of it," said Landrum.
The money raised will cover Grace's medical expenses and make sure she is looked after for the rest of her childhood. Landrum humbly says she didn't do much, but to one small, starving girl in Ghana what she did made all the difference.
Landrum hopes to continue to raise awareness and money because she says there are many others just like Grace.
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This is the picture that Tia posted on facebook. When people saw it, donations started pouring in.
Tia and Grace saying goodbye when Tia left Ghana.
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