The Mummy: Unwrapped

I’m a Global Care volunteer, a wife, and a Mum with 3 adult sons. When my children were small, my husband worked long hours and helped where he could. My friend has 4 children. One has learning disabilities. Her husband also works long hours and is away from home most weeks. Her son goes to a special school, so during term time it’s the evenings and weekends that are hard. They get some respite through social services. She's one of my heroes!

We visited three of our old friends today - children discharged from the Ark. We also met their mothers. Their families attended Physio sessions when the children were at the Ark. They leant how to care for their children at home. They’ve each been given money to invest – after discussing their ideas with the GC managers in Soroti and agreeing a plan.  First, we went to a tiny hut, where a girl with athetoid cerebral palsy (we'll call her Susan), was lying in clean clothes on a clean mattress being fed by her sister. A very different situation from when she started at the Ark 5 years ago. There are 11 people in the family. Both parents were casual labourers, earning a pittance on the days they worked. With their GC investment, the mother started a business selling dried fish, and the father selling cassava. During the day, Grandma cares for Susan and the younger children, while others are at school or working. Susan was distracted by her breakfast banana while we were visiting, but we had a lovely smile as we left.

Our second visit was to ‘James’ who lives with his extended family in a house built through his grandmother’s nursing pension. James is an active child who puts everything in his mouth and has an unhelpful habit of escaping the compound in his wheelchair, heading for a busy road. It was great to see him playing with his sister. His Grandma told us they've moved things into the house so James can't eat dusty dirty objects. I can’t imagine what its like looking after James – and at night he can be noisy. His mother used her money to set up a clothing business. She buys bales of clothes in town and sells them by the roadside. She says she makes a good profit. She can provide for her family and care for her disabled son. 

At the final home, we were all moved by a mother holding her son with love and compassion, bent over him rubbing his back and nuzzling his head.  Her love and care radiated round the room.  17-year-old ‘Emmanuel’ and his mother live in a teacher’s house at the school where she works. Ema had un-diagnosed meningitis when he was 1.  He has no functional movement in his limbs. He can hear and see some things, but doesn’t speak. Ema is sick. Very sick. His mother takes him to hospital for treatment but he’s so big its becoming difficult. He’s in too much pain to sit in his wheelchair so they take a boda-boda motorbike. The guards at the hospital won’t let the motorbike into the compound so she has to carry Ema to the doctor. Then she carries him to other buildings for tests, back to the doctor for results, then the pharmacy for medication. Then they have to get home again. Today Ema was silent and kept drifting asleep.  Carrying and caring for Ema has left his mother with a painful back. The doctors say there’s nothing else they can do except relieve Ema’s symptoms. School starts tomorrow. If she works, Ema is alone at home. When he was well, he’d go to the Ark and at home  other children would push him around in his wheelchair. His mother told us that before the Ark, he stayed home alone when he was well, she missed work when he was sick. This was their life for 12 years. She's an amazing example of a mother's unconditional sacrificial love.  Ema’s mother has spent most of her money on medical bills, but also plans to buy a cow - an investment here.  Her strength and courage were inspirational, her love overwhelming. 

I'm in awe of these mothers and grandmothers. I'm in awe of how hard GCare worked to find ways to relieve the suffering of parents and children when Tom was doing his research. Back then these children were hidden away, in the shadows or even under beds. No special schools or social services.

Today the mothers were incredibly grateful to GCare. They found hope when they realised people not only understood how difficult their situations, but wanted to help. GCare reaches out to individual children in unique situations, supporting extremely vulnerable children, families and communities...  with wisdom and integrity. Days like today may bring me to tears, but also bring stories of change and hope. These 3 children are no longer behind the curtain, their families not alone and outcast, and they have people who will continue to care for them and regularly visit. 'We can't do everything, we mustn't do nothing, we can do something.' 

Incidentally,  the wheelchairs all came from GCare. 

We also visited a school where wheelchair ramps had been installed, some boys on vocational training schemes, and met lots more sponsored children – but that’s for another day! I'm not blogging about the 2 hours of logframes...