90 years and dancing!

Up to 4pm, these old ladies and two children had nothing to eat.

They sat on the floor miserably, with the saddest eyes.

It is incredible to see how little can a make huge difference to this old lady appearance just within few minutes.

God knows when this 90 year old lady danced last.... :-) all it takes is to know that the food will be there tomorrow... For only £17 these two very old ladies, and their orphaned grandchildren can now worry about how to sustain themselves long-term rather than looking what to eat the next day. 20kg of posho, 10kg of beans, 1kg of salt, 2kg of sugar, bread, butter, bathing soap, washing soap, tea, skin jelly, oil, and petroleum for light.

OUTRAECH WORK IN SAIDA ’FAMILY AT MAGAMAGA

Saida four years of age lives with two grand mamas who are vulnerable in their family. We provided this family with the following things upon our second visit.

The family was left happy and exceedingly grateful for receiving food plus other supplies in their home. The food plus the supplies was for survival to them but they also received us with the goods as a Christmas miracle, because these old grand mama were not expecting anything or anybody to come with such a big surprise. There is still big need to support this family, even their latrine is broken needs to be rebuilt.

The excise was done by Veronika, Hashim and Emmanuel. Thanks be to Whisper.

Emmanuel Mugabi reporting. 

Posho                                           20kg                             28000/=       £6.81

Beans                                          20kgs                             32000/=      £7.80

Sugar                                              2kg                              6400/=       £1.56

Salt                                                 1kg                              1000/=       £0.24

Cooking oil                                  12 Sackets                     6000/=       £1.46

Bread n Blue Band                       1/2kg                            3200/=       £0.78

Paraffin                                         1 ltr                               2800/=       £0.68

Skin Doctor                                  1 big tin                          4000/=     £1

Washing Soap                              1bar                                1500/=     £0.36

Geisha Soap                                 1 big piece                     2200/=      £0.53            

Total                                                             87100/=    £21.24

From blog of Sienna - Whisper volunteer

From our Jigger Free Community Program, blog by Sienna Howell-Holden

 

"I don’t even know where to begin. I did my first day of jigger free community today. It was an extremely difficult day emotionally and mentally and physically. I witnessed things that shocked me and really made me struggle for composure.

We came to an area in Nsube, which is an area right beside Mutai and went out to visit a family that needed our help. Emmanuel (the man hired to direct the outreach community work) had been phoned by a neighbour about this family, who was concerned that they were not well and not very well taken care of.

I should mention that it was one of the hottest days I have experienced out here to this point and we had spent about 45 minutes walking at this point. Before we could even reach the family we were ushered into this mud hut and the first thing that hit me was the stench. There were two rooms with no windows, so very dimly lit. The first one was a sitting room of sorts, dirt floor with a wooden bench in it. The second was a bedroom and there was a thin foamie on the floor, the dirt floor, and various items around it. There was an emaciated man lying on the “bed”. I was told that he had been in a fight with a police official over 20 years ago and had been struck in the back. The vertebrae in his back were bruised to the point where he has not been able to walk since then. He moves rarely and judging from the smell he doesn’t get bathed very often. His older brother is the husband of the family that we were heading out to see. I ask about his body, if he is able to move at all and I was told the pain is too great. So all he can do is lie there in this dark, awful smelling room. We took a look at his back and bottom and there are these horrifying bed sores all over the lower back. I could also see the scar from where he was operated on. He has pain all over his back and no wonder, he has been sleeping on the floor for years. He has these bed sores and no wonder, his foamie and blanket have not been cleaned probably for months (to say years would probably not be an exaggeration). 

We move to the next house and two men start talking to me. Both of them reek of alcohol. One is the older brother, Paul, and he does not speak english but this other man does. The only problem is he is drunk. His speech is slurred, but he is surprisingly alert. I think he is probably a functioning drunk. We take a look at two of Paul’s eight children. I sit one of them down and take a look at his feet. I have not ever seen such decay in real life. His toes and heels are so infected that his toenails are falling off in places, while his heels look like crustaceans are attached to them. I take a look at his hands and the tip of his pinkie finger is so swollen and hard and that is my introduction to what it looks like to have jiggers under your skin. There is so much crusting dirt that we have to wash the boys hands and feet before we do anything. Instantly the water turns brown. People have gathered around to watch and Emma (Emmanuel) encourages them to take part. Which makes sense, the more people who are educated, the faster change spreads and children heal. 

Then comes the time to take the jiggers out. We sit the two boys down on a wooden bench  and I sit the older boy in my lap. We have brought safety pins and tweezers which are too thick, but useful anyways. There are 4 people who put on gloves and start in on the feet. Both boys are pretty stoic to begin with, but after about 5 minutes the younger one (about 4 and 1/2) starts to cry. I look at the non responsive boy, Keneth, in my lap and decide that the other one needs me more. I hand the older boy to his father who sits there listlessly. I go and put Deum in my lap and hold him while Emma takes chunk after chunk out of his feet. You think I am exaggerating when I say chunk, well I am not. Those boys are now missing sides and tops of their toes, there are holes in their heels. The way Deum screamed, it will leave me. He screamed for his mama and then his baba and I had to physically hold him to me tightly and wedge his leg between mine to keep him still. I could not hold back my tears, I was so angry at everything. the fact that these kids are going through hell because they don’t have the most basic of sanitation and hygiene and they have parents who are neglectful. I teared up, but realized that I had to be strong for the boys, my tears do not help them right here and now. 

I look over at Keneth and he is now screaming too and his father has let him fall between his legs and does not touch him while Keneth’s face is in the dirt. I try to catch his eye and tell him it will be okay. Finally after we finish applying polysporin and wrapping Deum’s feet, I go and pick up Keneth and and hold him to me. Immediately he quietens down and I feel his rapid breathing against my arms, his breath catching every time he inhales. We wrap his feet and promise to come back with shoes, a basin to wash themselves in, soap, clothes washing soap, and a broom to sweep the dirt out of their home. 

The man who is able to speak english and has been quite pro active in helping us work on the two boys, leads us to his home. He has five children  who also have jigger infected feet and there is this little baby boy. We work on the children’s feet and are finishing up when I look over at the baby and look at his back side. He has sores all over his lower back and he has a bumpy rash all over his body with a fungal infection that is spreading. It is possible he might have syphilis. I could not believe my eyes. This naked beautiful little boy is incredibly sick and there was just not enough time in the day to address it. 

At the end of the day we went to Mutai trading centre and picked up some things are returned to Nsube. We brought shoes for the boys to wear and more medical supplies so that the family can keep up the care of their poor feet. We washed the boys right there with their new soap and basin and it was an amazing transition. The boys looked healthier and smelled 100 times better. I also showed how to wasWe also bought chapatis for the boys and the father. In the afternoon that we spent there, they had not had any food. Something tells me they don’t eat very often in a day. We also brought chapati for David, the invalid. Both groups need beds, which we will try to make happen as soon as possible. People cannot sleep on the dirt floor. David needs his home cleaned and a window put in and to be off the floor. I didn’t look at his feet, but they are probably in awful condition. 

I feel really good about the work that we did today, but without looking at the bigger issues, it is pretty useless. The father’s alcoholism, the living conditions, the lack of education, the lack of help for David. There are bigger steps that we need to take and I will ensure that we do.  

I feel so weary. My energy has been completely zapped and then I went home to the orphanage and had to facilitate dinner and bedtime for the children… But the welcome that I got when I came home was worth it! Issac squealed “auntie sienna, auntie sienna” and came to embrace means he is so gentle and rests his head on my shoulder and wraps his arms around me. And now Shafiq comes after me wherever I go calling “mama….mama…something like anna…anna” AHHHH! It is scary to think how attached I feel to so many of the children already. How will I be able to leave after eight months??

Oh I had to get that all down before the vivid images leave me or make way for new ones. Time to sleep. Nakwenda all."

I live in paradise

My work has been bringing me to the psychiatric department where I keep meeting this beautiful young patient called Sarah.

She calls me her mother and thanks me for producing her. When I asked her what she does, she told me she was a lawyer and she helps for free.

We thank her for being a good person and helping for free and then told her, that we request her then to take her medication on time and properly, so she can go home to her mother (meaning me)... then someone asked her "do you know where your mum lives"  She replied promptly looking at me "yea i know in paradise... " When she said it, I got tears in my eyes looking at her... 

I thought she was right, no matter how much I complain over the imperfections ... i live in paradise - unlike others .. i have to thank God for giving me this great life full of lessons and opportunities which I fully accept, learn and progress from to where I am and to where I am heading to. 

Report of Adult Education

PROGRESSIVE REPORT

ON

WHISPERS ADULT LEARNERS CLASS

FOR THE PERIOD FEBRUARY –AUGUST 2012

WRITTEN BY

Ms. VICTORIA ITAMBA

ADULT CLASS FACILITATOR

Submitted to: Ms. Veronika Cejpkova

DATE SUBMITTED: 31^ST AUGUST, 2012

Over View of the WALC.

Whispers Adult Learners Class (WALC) begun in February, 2012 out of the financial and material support from Whisper based in Mutai, Kagoma County, Jinja District. WALC begun with 27 adult learners the majority (20) being housewives. Sixteen (16) of the women had never been to school while four had ended in Primary three. The male participant had never been to school before.

The classes are conducted every Saturday and Sundays every week from 2.00-5.00pm. The days and times were correctively determined by the learners to ensure convenience.

The class lessons started with teaching the learners how to count number (1-100), writing them down, reading and writing the vowels, alphabet letters, how to handle the writing materials like a pencil and pens, pronunciations of words, writing their names, how to greet in English according to the time of the day, naming of things in the environment, basic mathematical calculations, to mention but a few.

Methods of Delivery of Class.

While delivering the lessons a number methods and techniques were employed and these were not limited to the following;

·      Demonstration

·      Illustrations

·      Role Plays

·      Imitations

·      Brain storming

·      Question and Answers

Achievements registered so far.

·      98% of the learners are now able to reading and write all the Alphabets, vowels and numbers without any hardship.

·      96 % of all learners can ably write their name.

·      98% of the learners can now confidently greet in English.

·      Most of the learners can now express themselves in a group which was not the case at the commencement of the class as the majority were shy and feared to express themselves before others.

·      Ninety percent of the learners can now construct basic sentences.

Challenges threatening the WALC.

·      Poor time management by the learners as the class time is never kept and yet it was consciously agreed upon by the learners.

·      Irregular attendance by some of the learners, which they attribute to family chores/ problems like sickness of their children, death of relatives, Local Council cases resulting from disputes between neighbors.

·      Alcohol drinking among the learners has to some extent affected the general attendance. Some of these are involved in brewing or buying alcohol to drink.

·      The majority of the learners being farmers, sometimes especially during the rain seasons, the attendance is poor as many are busy planting or weeding their crops.

Way Forward.

·      There is need to involve the Local Leaders in the area to keep mobilizing the learners to join the WALC.

·      Management of Whispers need to plan for quarterly meetings with the learners to continue encouraging them to attend the lessons.

·      If possible Whispers management need to consider bringing other programmes on board like vocational training in the areas of tailoring, craft, weaving, income generating activities etc as away of enticing the learners to keep coming regularly.

APPRECIATION

I take the opportunity to thank Ms. Veronika Cejpkova and the entire management for giving the opportunity to facilitate WACL. I hope this is just the beginning of working with Whisper Orphans.

Thank you.

Absolute Poverty

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

On our arrival - Friday 26.07.2012 first time having Diana in our arms - Photo with Andrea Cejpkova