Family Begs for Help to Bring Home Body of US Mom Who Died Serving Kenyan Orphans

A grieving family in Richmond, Virginia is racing to raise funds after Ayla Garcia, a mother of four, died following a church mission trip to Kenya meant to support a local orphanage. 

Garcia had travelled to Kenya on June 30 alongside members of her church and family to assist the orphanage when she fell seriously ill. 

She contracted a salmonella infection and was later admitted to a hospital in Nairobi after her condition worsened significantly. 

According to her family, Garcia had been living with sickle cell disease, a condition that made her especially vulnerable to severe complications arising from the infection.

In an appeal for financial assistance launched shortly after she was hospitalized, relatives explained that the infection had spread aggressively to her kidneys, liver, and bloodstream, resulting in multiple organ complications that ultimately proved fatal.

Following her passing, the family has shifted its fundraising efforts toward two urgent goals. They now hope to use the money raised to settle her outstanding medical bills and to cover the cost of bringing her body back to the United States. 

The family explained that the hospital in Nairobi requires the full payment to be made before her remains can be released for the journey home.They said their central wish is to bring her back so they can give her a proper and dignified burial surrounded by loved ones.

As of Friday, the fundraiser had a target of twenty eight thousand dollars, an amount equivalent to roughly three point six million Kenyan shillings, to cover both the medical expenses and the repatriation costs. 

Her sudden death has left many mourning a woman who traveled across the world simply to help children she had never met before.