Focusing on Special Kids

For the first 7 weeks of my stay in Uganda I was a part of an intern team, made up of five interns. The responsibilities of the interns consisted of just about anything and everything. We were runners for visiting medical teams, we held special activities for the kids in the afternoons, and we were responsible for teaching Sunday school and midweek devotions. Now that the interns have left, my focus is now a bit more concentrated. In this country children who are born with physical or mental defects are considered to be the least of the least. In most cases the guardian(s) just aren’t willing or capable of caring for these children who require so much care. So, the majority of children with these types of disabilities is abandoned and ends up in orphanages such as this one.

Of the 90 children here at GSF, 11 of them are special needs children. For the past 3 months GSF has been very blessed to have a very gifted Ugandan physical/occupational therapist named Moses who comes once a week to work with these 11 children. My responsibility is to work alongside Moses to carry out the exercises and tasks that he does every Monday, throughout the week. Some of the children’s disabilities are more severe than others so they require more time, but I typically work with each kid for about thirty minutes every other day. It is a very difficult task because several of the kids have not even been diagnosed with a specific disorder, but the work is also very rewarding to see the improvements that they are accomplishing. I am going to give you a brief profile of a few of the most severely disabled children, and hope that these children will be in your prayers. Also if anyone has experience in this area and has some suggestions for me, I would love to hear them.

Name: Matthew
Diagnosis: Cerebral Palsy
Age: 4
Matthew is a joy to work with! He is always smiling, and extremely motivated to improve. He also has a sharp mind. He is unable to speak, walk, or stand on his own, but we are working and seeing improvements in these areas. Matthew was abandoned at birth, and someone found him when he was three days old in a banana plantation and brought him to GSF. His umbilical cord was still attached and he was in very poor condition. They began to notice that there were problems with him when his developing was delayed around age two. We are unaware if he was born with this condition or if it was result of his poor care shortly after birth.

Name: Sam
Diagnosis: Spina bifita
Age: 7
Due to his condition Sam is paralyzed from the waste down. I am unaware of Sam’s story and how he arrived at GSF. He’s a very bright kid who loves life. He was brought here only a few months ago and doesn’t speak English. We are working on teaching him English, and several other tasks that he can do with his arms.

Name: Gloria
Diagnosis: Unknown
Age: 7
Gloria is a young girl who has really stolen my heart. She is severely mentally and physically handicapped. It is believed that her mother had the measles during childbirth, which resulted in her disabilities. Her parents abandoned her leaving her with the grandmother and an uncle who were unable to care for her. She has deformities at her wrists, knees, and ankles that enable her to walk or support herself in any way. When I arrived her legs had been casted for several months. I didn’t think that this was a good way to fix her problem, so I began doing some research. I visited the doctor with her about a month back and had some questions for him and left with still a bad feeling. This orthopedic doctor is the nearest one located in the area and had some questionable tactics. So, I contacted a orthopedic doctor in Kampala, who I had heard good things about, and set up an appointment for Gloria. Yesterday I took Gloria to see this doctor, and am very glad I did. He was very intelligent and well informed. He immediately removed the casts and took x-rays of Gloria’s legs. He agreed with me that casts were definitely not the solution to Gloria’s problem. Looking at the x-rays he determined that Gloria was not going to be a candidate for surgery due to the poor condition of her bones, but he had a plan that will hopefully have Gloria walking one day. He fitted her, and is now in the process of making metal braces, or calipers as he called them, for her legs. I will now be working with her everyday to try to strengthen her legs and core muscles so that when we get the braces she may be able to support herself in some way. Today Gloria is crying a lot, I think because her legs are very sore. Pray that this soreness will soon subside so that we can began doing exercises with her.

Name: Rose
Diagnosis: Mental and Physical Retardation resulting from cerebral malaria and malnourishment
Age: 7
Rose’s case and condition is a very sad one. Rose was a perfectly healthy girl until she was about three years old and she contracted cerebral malaria. This is a very dangerous sickness if you aren’t careful and her parents were not willing to care for her. She was later found by our social worker curled up naked in the corner of a hut. If we wouldn’t have found her when we did she would have died soon after. She was extremely malnourished. Though she was seven years old she still appeared to be about four. In the four months that she has been here she has began to grow again but her condition is still very very poor. She is extremely brain damaged and doesn’t respond to much. We think that she is probably blind. She has a lot of trouble taking in food, aspirating after every meal. Pretty much all she can do is lay in the bed or on the couch curled up. She always appears to be very scared, and her muscles are very tense. So I go in every day and just stretch her out. This is a very difficult task because it is very painful for her. We aren’t sure what Rose’s future will look like, but we are really thankful that she is now in better hands.

There are several others who have milder cases of mental and physical disabilities. Caleb is a twelve year old boy with TB of the spine. This has lead to extreme scoliosis, and Caleb is also mentally retarted. Moses is a nine year old boy who is mentally retarded, and Lily is a fifteen year old girl who is mentally disabled. Cathy and Elijah are two teenagers we have here who are mute. So as we work with these kids I again ask that you pray for them and for us. That God will give us the wisdom of what to do in each and every case.