KUMI COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
APRIL 2021 UPDATE
A Fieldwork Day in the lives of Ruth (Community Based Rehabilitation team member) and Antony (Physiotherapist)
As I write about Ruth's and Antony's work on Wednesday 7 April, another batch of photos is arriving from yesterday's clinic.
I'll start with the home visits where we encounter the families in greatest need and without the resources to seek help for their children with disabilities. We witness their actual living conditions and can support them whenever possible..
1. Babies & young children born with club feet can be treated conservatively with plaster of Paris followed by abduction shoes without the need for surgery or living a life with a disability.
2. The mother of Abraham Opio brought him to the Wheels for the World distribution of wheelchairs in February 2020 where the team decided the boy could walk with a mobility aid and happened to have just the right walker for him! He does not need a wheelchair and hopefully he will walk independently in time. Antony advised the mother to apply warm compresses to his tight knee flexors and Achilles tendons prior to stretching exercises.
3. Ayuro Kevin, with spastic hemiplegia, sat on the back of a bicycle ridden by her mother and came for assessment with the result that her name is added to our ever-lengthening wheelchair list.
4. Elungat Lazaro, it was decided, would benefit in having parallel bars to learn to stand and walk as he had good upper limbs and power in his lower limbs. The team set to to make them on site and soon Lazaro would learn to walk and gain balance to become independent. He was given a huge chicken as part of our Christmas Gift programme as well as the proverbial bar of soap and salt (so important as part of their diet).
5. The team met a man who had previously been given a wheelchair ( background in photo) which was in a very dilapidated state. I am not sure if this would have been taken to Kumi Hospital Orthopaedic Workshop for repair or he would have been added to our wheelchair list.
6. Our old people are not forgotten and the joy of being given a bar of soap is something to experience.
7. A young boy with windswept knees needs surgery so we shall raise funds for him to come to Kumi Hospital.
8. Zubyanio has been fitted with her lower limb prosthesis which would have been checked by Antony for any issues.
Among the children who I do not have photos is Akol Christine whose roof on the mud hut has been repaired following a previous visit Two children will come for rehab for assessment where there are better facilities than in the home. Two mattresses, five goats and the chicken were given out
The final two photos are of yesterday's clinic where the day starts with the mothers and children being given breakfast and then at the end of the day returning to their homes.
Throughout March, many families were helped and to mention a couple there was Leah who has been admitted to Nursing School. The requirements list is always quite bizarre with items such as bags of cement, outdoor sweeping brushes, hoes as well as the usual mattress, jerrycan, mosquito net. Aguti Martha was given a sewing machine and the haberdashery necessities to start a small business.
So, how can we thank Ruth and Antony for their continued devotion to these families?
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