Child resettlement: Shafiq, Bashir & Kawuma

Goodbye Shafiq Shafiq is leaving Whisper home and being resettled back to his family

Remember Shafiq? Shafiq entered the Whisper home as a very sick baby. (Blog from 05/02/2013) He was one and half years old when we came across to him at the children's ward in a terrible stage. He was deadly malnourished and attached by serious level of Tuberculosis. He coughed nonstop and could not eat or drink.  He needed six month tuberculosis treatment, which his mother could not afford it.  The nurse at the hospital told us that his HIV positive mum wants to give up on this fight because she had no money to sustain herself in the hospital with food and water and no money to buy any medication or cannulas for her son. The good hearted nurse was secretly giving the mother baby hospital formula milk to satisfy the mother's hunger. When the team of Whisper came, we purchased cannulas, dressings, medication and other necessary medical equipment that would bring Shafiq back to life. Shafiq needed a high nutritional diet in order to fight the TB. This was something that his mother was unable to sustain.  As advised by doctors and social services, we let the mother take Shafiq back to her home, as she had other two children to take care of. It was only after 7 days that Whisper received a phone call from the mother saying that Shafiq is failing to breath. We rushed him to the hospital again where he was put on the oxygen supply.  Two weeks later, we took Shafiq to our children's home, and treated the TB for six month.  Shafiq incredibly improved. He started to walk, run, smile, play and when you look at him now, you would never guess he was in such an alarming condition. Whisper's staff offered some counseling to the mother through the time, who now fries some cakes and sells them by the side of the road to generate day to day income. Shafiq was brought back to his home together with his new bed, mattress, blanket, clothes and other bits and pieces.  Whisper will continue to monitor his home and offer any assistance he will need.

Goodbye Bashir Bashir is also leaving Whisper home and being resettled back to his family

Bashir came to live in the children's home in December 2012. Whisper got to know this boy during its outreach work in the community within the Kamuli district. Read the blog here According to his mother, Bashir was three years old, but he wasn't able to stand or walk, not even talk. Bashir didn't look right and he looked to be very sick. Every time when we touched Bashir he would scream in pain. He was unable to stand on his legs or crawl. Following up further diagnoses, we discovered that Bashir's leg was broken for many weeks, if not for months. It took more than 12 months before Bashir started to walk again. It was a long journey. Whilst sitting he would use his hands to push himself on the floor. After about six months, Bashir started to improve by standing on his feet whilst holding hands. Children constantly kept holding his hands and try to walk with him. It was such a great feeling when Bashir took his first steps on his own and started to learn to be more independent. So after Bashir's improvement it was his time to come back to live with his mother. Whisper will continue to monitor his situation and provide any assistance he may need.

Goodbye Kawuma Justine Kawuma Justine has reached the time of going back to her grandmother too. It is sad to see her to let her go but we are happy for the great work Whisper has achieved with Kawuma.

Beautiful Kawuma. You are going to be dearly missed. Kawuma was one of the first children who entered the Whisper home and one of those children who Whisper would write numerously times about. Kawuma has been with Whisper since May 2012 - as some of you may know her story, she has been unfortunately neglected to the point where it left her totally dependent on people's help. Only a week after we got Kawuma, she was diagnosed with Epilepsy in the Children's Ward in Jinja, and ever since attending regular doctor's check ups every  Wednesday of the month to see how she is reacting to the medication. I remember the first month was so horrific with Kawuma. We would sit with her days and nights as her side effects to the prescribed strong epileptic medication were too severe. She would be in constant high fevers, vomiting salivas, she was just suffering and I thought it wasn't right. Her fits wouldn't necessary decrease but she stopped urinating or defecating.  We were constantly in touch with the doctors regarding her conditions. We would even call him up during the night.  Read more here After getting the wonderful news from lady called Eva Andriessen who decided to fundraise money for Kawuma's treatment and diagnoses via her event "The life of Your Choice" in December 2013 in London. Her and her team of girls raised £500 to pay for some of the expenses of Kawuma's treatment.  Whisper finally got Kawuma on the right medication and today we hardly see Kawuma having any other fits. She became much stronger and can sit  up by herself without any support. Kawuma is now almost 10 years old girl who will continue living with her grandmother. Our staff trained the grandmother in physio exercises that she needs. Whisper also improved the home condition by cementing the floor, rearranging the rooms, putting her new beds and mattresses for Kawuma and her sister to sleep on. Her grandmother was so happy to receive her and we come to monitor Kawuma every other day and continue supplying Kawuma with needed mediation and any other assistance.