Yesterday the 24th of August 2012 as part of the Whisper Community Work Program, we managed to pay a visit to Babirye Christine of Lukolo Village (5km from Mutai).
Christine is more less a single mother looking after 6 children; boys and 3 girls.
Chronologically, Christine's children by age from the eldest to the youngest; Henry 15 years, Tony 9 years, Veronica 7 years (HIV positive), Joviah 5 years, Irene 3,5 years and Gerald 1 year old baby.
It's quite unfortunate that not only is Christine battling with absolute poverty and heavy family load, she also suffers from HIV/AIDS that has taken most of her peace. In our own ivestigation, we found out that her husband deserted the family after realizing that AIDS has set foot in the home.
He has ever since placed the blame on Christine saying she must be the cause of the disease. Christine is currently undergoing her routine HIV medication and she hopes to live a little longer.
As she narrated her ordeal, she told us that her husbad sometimes spends 9 months away from home with another wife and only returns to impregnate her. She currently enrolled for family planning as a means of controlling these unwanted pregnancies.
Christine built her house using her own hands; from foundation, looking for the poles, preparing the mud for the walls amont others. The entire family lives without proper beds; four children sleep on the floor and two of them squeeze on pieces of timber the whole night.
There are no plates to eat on, no cups and she borrows a basin and jerricans from the nighbour. This family lives without proper lighting.
In order to buy ten pieces of iron sheets for her house, sha had to hire away half of her land to a sugar can grower for a period of ten years for just 100.000 shilligns. (£25).
Whisper has reached to her again this afternoon and will work on providing more clothes for the children as each of them has only 1 piece of very dirty t-shirt and the youngest baby is living naked.
What really touched all of us is when we bought them a bar of soup for only 0.40p which can last them for the whole month, the young boy aged 9 years said with smile "I can finally wash my t-shirt".
See the items we provided to this family and which they didn't have...
TOTAL EXPENSES SO FAR:
Beds 160.000 (3 beds), 3 mattresses 120.000, warm blankets 2x20.000, Lamp 7.500, Basin 3.500, Cups 2.000, plates 4.000, sets of dishes 6.500, Bowls 4.000, Spoons 2.000, Laddle 1.000, Saucepans 12.500, Flask 7.000, Mosquito nets 20.000, Salt 2 sackets 2.000, Bar Soap 2.000, 2 boxes of matches 1.000, bathing soap
We are going to buy for them a jerry can and some clothes for the children and especially for the little baby.
We will put some photos once we manage to upload them.
Whisper
Saturday 25 August 2012
Isaac - a child who was told the food is bad
Welcome Isaac
The saddest thing is that even though many times we carry out our work at the same villages, people tend to hide the kids who themselves made to suffer - this time Butangala Village, around 15km from Mutai.
We sponsor three kids to the boarding school at the nearby boarding school and as we accommodated those three children with new term approaching on the 23rd, we decided to visit families and people we work with at the same time.
We came across a young boy who seems very sweet and more than willing to honestly guides us to a child which is in a very bad condition.
He took us to this home which was made of bricks where a young and strong man welcomed us. THE FATHER, where besides him her quite hello whispered his wife.
Isaac came half naked to greet us with the most miserable look about him.
His teeth have not developed well and majority of them were lost, therefore it is pretty hard for him to bite food and speak.
Isaac seemed very frightened and his skin on his body was very poor - marks and prints from poor sleeping, perhaps some scratches caused by a physical harm.
The father and mother told us that he has a problem with his stomach which causes him to vomit the food he eats, therefore he only can consume a glass of milk every day.
This was very hard to believe so I asked for a medical form from the hospital.
The medical report was dated around the 27th of July 2011 and the treatment Isaac was prescribed was "MULTIVITAMIN SYRUP". The father claimed the same to the doctor where Isaac would vomit all the food he would eat.
This child was clearly neglected and the parents were careless, perhaps wanted to end his life. The child didn't have his finger nails cut for weeks and they were very dirty.
His mother brought the second child which is a younger sister to Isaac, she is now around 2 years, a very fat and healthy baby.
Isaac's parents willingly agreed to give us Isaac straight away and take further care for him.
The same night Isaac was brought to our house however refused to eat any porridge or smashed food, neither drank tea or simple water. We tried to give him milk but he would aggressively refused to take even a bit of it. That night he went to sleep without any water and hungry - although some hours before he claimed he was very hungry and wanted food.
The next morning he again refused to drink water or take porridge, therefore we realized that this boy is scared of it. The only thing he would say was "I need to sleep"... "I need to sleep"....
We decided to take the hard and desperate measures, which was to apply a force ... with a help of our nurse, we forced him to drink the porridge which contained honey, milk, sugar, butter, g-nuts and a cocoa powder for the best nutrition supply. With our surprise Isaac didn't vomit. ... Isaac didn't vomit even after the next cup of porridge... Isaac actually never vomited and loved every cup thereafter.
After taking Isaac to the hospital the same day he was prescribed "just" amoxicillin for his cough and SENT HOME. I felt very suspicion and unhappy about how people treat this boy - not just his OWN parents but also people at the children's hospital.
The next day we decided to take Isaac to the dentist and x-ray for his chest and visit the same children's hospital again. We went to see different doctor (with a push from the only "helpful" nurse).
Tuberculosis is a fatal disease that often appeared in people with a low immune system - such are HIV positive people or severally malnourished children.
When the doctor saw the results of x-ray and Isaac health condition he asked if Isaac was measured his arm to see his malnourishment count the day we brought him to the hospital for the first time. The first day Isaac was simply refused to be admitted to the hospital and put on a nutrition program as well as as sent home on simple Amoxicillin tabs without any comments to be put onto the nutrition program.
I requested this doctor to help this boy and he only said "This boy is severally malnourished and can die without help, he must be admitted to the hospital and put on 6 months strict treatment for tuberculosis, you will miss one tablet only, you will need to repeat the 6 months corse again..., he may stay here perhaps for 3-4 weeks, depending on his diet improvements."
He also said that this time they had no cannulas to inject the patients as well as the TB treatment is missing at the hospital and around the area in the pharmacies and asked us to get that drug for him around the town.
After a long re-search we got an information that there is an only clinic which provides such drugs which we finally went to.
Isaac has improved so much for the last week being in the hospital. He loves to eat and drink, he smiles everytime we come to visit him - I never can wait to go to the hospital again to visit Isaac and other children we are helping at the moment.
The improvement in children after injecting small amount of cash is just amazing. Perhaps this is a story for my other blog.
Thank you to everyone who supports us at this time. Isaac may be discharged from the hospital in around 2 weeks time and will continue with nutrition food that we have to be making home-made at home because plumply nuts are out of stock in the hospital since May - and they are not anywhere on the market as they are not to be sold.
We have got all the paper work sorted for him and One World Orphanage will become the legal guardians after submitting the court orders next week.
The saddest thing is that even though many times we carry out our work at the same villages, people tend to hide the kids who themselves made to suffer - this time Butangala Village, around 15km from Mutai.
We sponsor three kids to the boarding school at the nearby boarding school and as we accommodated those three children with new term approaching on the 23rd, we decided to visit families and people we work with at the same time.
We came across a young boy who seems very sweet and more than willing to honestly guides us to a child which is in a very bad condition.
He took us to this home which was made of bricks where a young and strong man welcomed us. THE FATHER, where besides him her quite hello whispered his wife.Isaac came half naked to greet us with the most miserable look about him.
His teeth have not developed well and majority of them were lost, therefore it is pretty hard for him to bite food and speak.
Isaac seemed very frightened and his skin on his body was very poor - marks and prints from poor sleeping, perhaps some scratches caused by a physical harm.
The father and mother told us that he has a problem with his stomach which causes him to vomit the food he eats, therefore he only can consume a glass of milk every day.
This was very hard to believe so I asked for a medical form from the hospital.
The medical report was dated around the 27th of July 2011 and the treatment Isaac was prescribed was "MULTIVITAMIN SYRUP". The father claimed the same to the doctor where Isaac would vomit all the food he would eat.
This child was clearly neglected and the parents were careless, perhaps wanted to end his life. The child didn't have his finger nails cut for weeks and they were very dirty.
His mother brought the second child which is a younger sister to Isaac, she is now around 2 years, a very fat and healthy baby.
Isaac's parents willingly agreed to give us Isaac straight away and take further care for him.
The same night Isaac was brought to our house however refused to eat any porridge or smashed food, neither drank tea or simple water. We tried to give him milk but he would aggressively refused to take even a bit of it. That night he went to sleep without any water and hungry - although some hours before he claimed he was very hungry and wanted food.
The next morning he again refused to drink water or take porridge, therefore we realized that this boy is scared of it. The only thing he would say was "I need to sleep"... "I need to sleep"....
We decided to take the hard and desperate measures, which was to apply a force ... with a help of our nurse, we forced him to drink the porridge which contained honey, milk, sugar, butter, g-nuts and a cocoa powder for the best nutrition supply. With our surprise Isaac didn't vomit. ... Isaac didn't vomit even after the next cup of porridge... Isaac actually never vomited and loved every cup thereafter.
After taking Isaac to the hospital the same day he was prescribed "just" amoxicillin for his cough and SENT HOME. I felt very suspicion and unhappy about how people treat this boy - not just his OWN parents but also people at the children's hospital.
The next day we decided to take Isaac to the dentist and x-ray for his chest and visit the same children's hospital again. We went to see different doctor (with a push from the only "helpful" nurse).
Tuberculosis is a fatal disease that often appeared in people with a low immune system - such are HIV positive people or severally malnourished children.
When the doctor saw the results of x-ray and Isaac health condition he asked if Isaac was measured his arm to see his malnourishment count the day we brought him to the hospital for the first time. The first day Isaac was simply refused to be admitted to the hospital and put on a nutrition program as well as as sent home on simple Amoxicillin tabs without any comments to be put onto the nutrition program.
I requested this doctor to help this boy and he only said "This boy is severally malnourished and can die without help, he must be admitted to the hospital and put on 6 months strict treatment for tuberculosis, you will miss one tablet only, you will need to repeat the 6 months corse again..., he may stay here perhaps for 3-4 weeks, depending on his diet improvements."
He also said that this time they had no cannulas to inject the patients as well as the TB treatment is missing at the hospital and around the area in the pharmacies and asked us to get that drug for him around the town.
After a long re-search we got an information that there is an only clinic which provides such drugs which we finally went to.
Isaac has improved so much for the last week being in the hospital. He loves to eat and drink, he smiles everytime we come to visit him - I never can wait to go to the hospital again to visit Isaac and other children we are helping at the moment.
The improvement in children after injecting small amount of cash is just amazing. Perhaps this is a story for my other blog.
Thank you to everyone who supports us at this time. Isaac may be discharged from the hospital in around 2 weeks time and will continue with nutrition food that we have to be making home-made at home because plumply nuts are out of stock in the hospital since May - and they are not anywhere on the market as they are not to be sold.
We have got all the paper work sorted for him and One World Orphanage will become the legal guardians after submitting the court orders next week.
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Hearts going to Jacob Mase (4)
Yesterday while visiting at Kaitabawala village we were approach by a man who said to us "please help this little boy, he lives with an old man who is dying there in the house.
We got to the house and we found this sweet smiley boy called Jacob Mase. He was dumpted by his father to his grandfather 3 years ago and ever since living with him.
The grandfather, ex tailor, age 73 stopped working after his sawing machine was stolen from him.
When we greeted this sweet old man, he appeared very shaky and weak. He spoke well in english with a very humble approach.
When we asked him how often he eats, he said that since morning he and his grandson had nothing. It was approaching 7pm then...
I could feel touched again - there is this urge I always start feeling when meeting people or children like this. Urge to act...
We visited his home, full of dirt and bad smell, when we touched that bed, it was hard as stone, it was a single bed made out of a metal, which was already half broken. The blanket smelled badly and there was maybe half inch teared mattress which was lied only half down the bed - the rest was just a simple flat piece of timber.
We bought some good food for this poor man that evening and promised to come back the following day.
Today, this man received a new bed with a completely new mattress and blanket and some more sugar and oil. The happiness was all over the place at this time :-)
The man felt like dying however now he feels the life is coming back again :-)
The beautiful little boy was wearing the same teared clothes like yesterday, so we will be coming back to him and give him the donations we pick from you our friends around London and Czech Republic :-)
So we all are making a difference! Thank you!
We got to the house and we found this sweet smiley boy called Jacob Mase. He was dumpted by his father to his grandfather 3 years ago and ever since living with him.
The grandfather, ex tailor, age 73 stopped working after his sawing machine was stolen from him.
When we greeted this sweet old man, he appeared very shaky and weak. He spoke well in english with a very humble approach.
When we asked him how often he eats, he said that since morning he and his grandson had nothing. It was approaching 7pm then...
I could feel touched again - there is this urge I always start feeling when meeting people or children like this. Urge to act...
We visited his home, full of dirt and bad smell, when we touched that bed, it was hard as stone, it was a single bed made out of a metal, which was already half broken. The blanket smelled badly and there was maybe half inch teared mattress which was lied only half down the bed - the rest was just a simple flat piece of timber.
We bought some good food for this poor man that evening and promised to come back the following day.
Today, this man received a new bed with a completely new mattress and blanket and some more sugar and oil. The happiness was all over the place at this time :-)
The man felt like dying however now he feels the life is coming back again :-)
The beautiful little boy was wearing the same teared clothes like yesterday, so we will be coming back to him and give him the donations we pick from you our friends around London and Czech Republic :-)
So we all are making a difference! Thank you!
Sunday 5 August 2012
Diana - the little angel sent to Whisper
After a very hard day we got home late, when our little John said he was feeling very sick and his fever raised up to 39.5. We rushed to the only hospital that operates 24/7. It was after midnight.
Care for Diana will be costing Whisper £100 month for the first year or year and half having her in our care.
Little John was admitted in the hospital and we got home at 4 in the morning exhausted.
I thought of cancelling the early visit to one family the same morning - as we promised the previous day, after getting a phone call from a friend that there is mother who died and left suffering children.
I went to bed but some urge woke me up at 6.30 and I knew I had to make it to the village for 7...
DIANA:
Diana was a tiny 4 months old baby girl. Her mother died just two days before we got there.
Let me tell you the story:
Our friend Mille was visiting a friend at the main Jinja Hospital when she was approached by two women, she remembered their faces as her family friend was married to one of the woman.
The woman whom her friend was married to was in terrible state. She was very skinny, dirty and had jiggers (the worm parasites) all over her body, even on her face. She had no energy left and cried for help. She said that doctors refused to treat her and refused to admit her at the hospital as they were scared to touch her... the poor women cried to our friend Mille about her children and a little baby girl. Mille promised her she will contact Whisper in order to come and help those children...
The young woman died later in the day on the grass in front of the hospital. At this point Mille called our office and made an apponitment with us the following morning.
Later the same day, the only "boda boda man" (motorbike taxi) carried the dead body back to the village where he dumped the body of young mother on the side of the road...
When we reached to the village on Friday morning and we saw little Diana, our hearts absolutely broke. Little Diana, beautiful baby girl, weighing only 4 kg, with dried and broken skin, ingrown dirt on her head, knotted hair and parasites sucking blood on her feet and hands, we took her to our arms and never gave her back...
Diana has two other aunties who are sister to her mother. They both refused to care for Diana as one of aunties does not have a baby on her own and her husband refused to care for a baby which is not his own and the other had a baby her own and her husband threaten to stab the baby to death if she brings it.
I was told by our friend Mille with tears in her eyes that this family never received help from anyone.
The poor mother of Diana suffered from HIV, not being able to care for herself nor her children. The baby was never washed before.... We were giving Diana her first bath at the orphanage. It took 7 days to gently get rid of the ingrown dirt on her scalp.
It has been over a week we care for this beautiful little angel and my heart goes so much to the mother and I promised myself that we will not disappoint her. Diana will continue having a name that her mother chose for her and we will make sure that this precious baby will make her proud...
In order to care for this baby, Whisper has to invest lots of our finances that were not allocated previously to this and we are taking money from our reserves and one off donations in order to care for Diana.
Diana was at the hospital and she is HIV negative so far. Diana is about to finish her course of antibiotics and she improved visibly and physically.
Diana needs breast feeding which is not available to her. We buy dry milk for new born babies which is only available in town for 29.000 shillings (£7.60), the tin of dried milk lasts her for about 2 days only. Nappies are also very expensive as we change her as often as she eats.
We also employed a temporary nurse to care for her whilst our mamas are busy caring for the rest of the children.
Care for Diana will be costing Whisper £100 month for the first year or year and half having her in our care.
We appreciate any donation our Whisper friends made in the last 7 days towards Dajana and we will continue working to our best abilities to give this girl hope that her and her mother didn't have.
Diana wakes up with smiles and she likes to talk a lot especially after milk. Every time I look at her, I can imagine the suffer both Diana and the mother must have been going through until her very last day of her life. Everytime I look at her again and again, I am just grateful for the opportunity to be able to rescue children like Diana. Whisper is blessed with many miracles.
PS: John has now fully recovered and is back from the hospital on the home treatment.
Here are some wonderful picture of Diana
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| On our arrival - Friday 26.07.2012 first time having Diana in our arms - Photo with Andrea Cejpkova |
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