Liberia, Oct. 29 -- Summary:

By Gloria Wleh, senior reporter with New Narratives

72ND COMMUNITY, Montserrado County - Suitcases are being packed here for yet another flight. For 19-year-old Tilnette Woods and her mother, Johnetta Harris-Kamara, plane journeys have become part of their lives.

Tilnette has sickle cell disease, an inherited condition that changes the shape of red blood cells, making them difficult to flow through the body. It causes extreme pain and frequent infections. Untreated, it kills half of the Liberian children born with it by the age of five.

Restricted blood flow to Tilnette's hip bones has caused them to crumble and die. Now, she has travelled to India for her second hip replacement surgery. She had the first ...