We were recently approached at our headquarters by a woman clutching what appeared to be a very sick little boy in her arms. He had a sizeable and protruding growth on the right side of his head – it looked like a brain tumour.
When we followed the woman back to her house, we could see that living conditions were extremely poor; food lay in baskets exposed to the elements and was surrounded by livestock, chicken feed and faeces. The woman explained to us that her son had been receiving medical care from a local hospital but despite both she and her family working all hours of the day to fund the treatment, their resources were fast dwindling.
We
learnt the woman had six children but was only living with two of them;
five from a previous marriage and the little boy, whose name was Isaac, with
her current husband. When we pressed her on this, the woman became upset
telling us that she was forced to leave her other children with her former
husband in a village five miles away because she could not afford to support
them. Relations with her former husband and his family are strained –she rarely
sees the children. Her eldest son, Zachary who is 14, also lives with her as he
is able to work and therefore support himself; he gives what he can to help
fund his brother’s treatment.
Whisper
receives a great number of requests for help of this kind from families who
simply do not have the resources to pay Ugandan medical bills –which are among
the highest in the world when compared to the average salary. As a result, we
are only able to help in a select few cases and our investigations are on going.
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