Winding down...

Just two more days of work left before I have a 6 week break travelling. Very excited about the travels, not only do I see one of my best friends for the first time in over 2 years, but also because I am feeling like I definitely need a break from work!

After the intensity of the last few weeks: fearing for my life, confrontations, making difficult decisions about children’s lives and generally feeling pretty overwhelmed by all things work for a period of time, this last week and a half has been a really positive one. Thank goodness. 

Tony – all’s sorted, ‘agreement’ signed by all parties and he will continue attending an excellent school that is doing wonders for him. Hurrah!!

I am really lucky to work with a beautiful little boy called Newton. Not only am I lucky to work with him, but also his Grandmother. The inner strength this woman has is unreal. Newton is her responsibility after his birth parents ran away from him and the stigma that comes with him. Newton has cerebral palsy, and as a result is significantly physically impaired. However, he’s as bright as a button and is a proper cheeky 6 year old. Newton’s Grandmother brings him every week to our cerebral palsy clinic, carries him for about 6 miles on her back and never does she complain. She treats Newton like a ‘normal’ boy and their relationship is how I wish it would be with his mother.

Anyhoos, Newton should be attending school, so far only special units have accepted him, however we all believed that he should attend a mainstream school because cognitively he is able to access the curriculum. After a lot of discussion with Wellington we decided that a local school called Ikumba Primary would be great for him. I’ve always been impressed with the school and their attitudes when I’ve been in and met them, plus one of the teachers is trained in special educational needs, and sits on the community based organisation (CBO) Yellow House so is very much on the ‘ball’ of inclusion! However, we knew there would be one ‘excuse’ as to why the school would not accept Newton. He didn’t have a wheelchair. Thanks to the fundraising of a friend from the UK, Newton has now been measured for his very own adapted wheelchair so that he can attend school. His face has never looked so proud and excited when we took him to get measured in Kisumu. I wish I’d had my camera... Wellington and I met with the head teacher of Ikumba Primary School, discussed Newton’s strengths and needs and they have agreed to place him there. Even suggesting assigning one of the staff’s latrines to Newton so that a toilet seat the EARC is donating can always be there so he can use the toilet independently!! I was pleasantly shocked when the head teacher agreed; this is inclusion in a way that has never been seen before in Vihiga County. Amazing!!

Newton starts school in January 2012 with a brand new wheelchair. I can’t wait to see him in his school uniform, he will be the proudest and happiest boy in Kenya!!

Wellington is starting his distance learning degree in Special Educational Needs Teaching this month. He has been doing the job he has been doing for the last 15 years, is an amazing assessment teacher and has done an unbelievable amount of advocacy and raising awareness for children and adults with disabilities in Vihiga County. Often supporting them from his own pocket, from which he has very little to give. However, the government has brought in a new policy that to do the job he is doing, he has to have a degree in it. Ridiculous! He’s managed to get a loan to pay for this session. Basically the course is over 2 years and has 3 sessions a year, where he has 3 weeks of intensive lectures per session, and the rest is done independently. It’s how a lot of people here afford to be able to do degrees. Each session, including accommodation and travel (it takes place 6hours away in Eldoret) costs 40,000ksh, about £250.

I have decided to pay for April 2012’s session from some of the money I fundraised before coming out here. This gives Wellington 8 months to find the money to fund the August session. The reason I have decided to use some of the money raised on this is because Wellington is the person who will still be here when I leave. The work he does is beyond his job description, and obviously by working alongside 2 SLTs for over a year will mean that he can continue some of our work when we have left.

I was very lucky to tell Wellington on Monday that a friend of mine has offered to pay for a session in December next year. He doesn’t understand why someone who has never met him wants to help him. I tried to explain that by supporting him doing this degree we will be continuing to support the children we work with in Vihiga. All he could say was that “Kenyans have a long way to go before we are like you...” and then cried – which of course made me blub like a baby!!!

I’m going to wind up there – thank you all so much for continuing to read my ramblings and waffle. I’ll be back on here in January..

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Just to update you on Maurine

David and I took her to the hospital in Kisumu and after much waiting around, and various doctors coming in to the room we were sat in, having a little prod and look in Maurine's eyes we finally got seen to.

Unfortunately we are too late.

The doctor believes she suffered from meningitis 4 years ago and due to the mis-treatment of it, she has ended up in the medical state she's in now. It's been suggested that Maurine has a CT scan in order to determine the severity of the hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) that she acquired as a result of the meningitis before recommending further treatment to reduce the hydrocephalus. A CT scan here costs 6000ksh (£38), however there is no chance Mum can find this money.
We went to the social services dept at the hospital to see if there could be any financial support offered. Because a CT scan is so expensive, they can't waiver the fee, however will pay 1000ksh towards it if Mum comes with the rest. It's a pay for the treatment first situation here too.

I asked the doctor if she felt having medical treatment would make any differenct at all to the quality of Maurine's life. She said "No".

It's a really difficult situation to find myself in. My heart is saying fund for her to have the CT scan, but my head is saying that 6000ksh can be used to pay for 4 children who attend my cerebral palsy clinic to have adapted chairs made for them which will make eating a safer experience for them, and thus possibly saving there life, as well as making communication a lot easier. Or will part pay for a child to have a wheelchair so that he can attend a mainstream integrated school. And, not only that, but then another 6000ksh will be needed for an operation that will make no difference.

We are speaking to Maurine's Mum next week to tell her that nothing can be done for her daughter. It's a role that shouldn't be mine as a speech therapist. But, it's a role that no one else will take on.

It's all very 'real' here now.

It has been the most stressful and emotional couple of weeks for me since being here. As always, there have been some positives, but unfortunately they have been a little outweighed by the negatives...

I saw my first dead child last week.

Just lying there in the middle of their family’s land, uncovered, with their mother wailing, (a sound that will never leave my head) next to them. I don’t know how they died.  Probably something preventable like malaria or meningitis. Something that, for the average family out here, can’t be treated due to the lack of money to even get to a hospital on time. 

I was on my way to visit Steward (16 year old lad with severe brain damage due to untreated convulsions he had when he was 3 years old...) when I came across the deceased child. When we rang to see if it was still ok for us to do the home visit Steward’s mother said it was fine, but that she had a funeral to attend to that afternoon. I found out the funeral was for her daughter who had died the day before...

Unfortunately doing the ‘right’ thing out here can mean you put yourself in danger. I witnessed some complete unprofessionalism and bullying at work the other week, and did what I would have done anywhere in the world and reported it. Turns out that wasn’t the wisest of ideas as that person ‘knows’ people and the charity organiser was worried I had put myself at risk. So, I had to go to them with my tail between my legs and apologise. Although not what I believed in, the bigger picture is that I want to stay here, I love working and living here and a lot of positive work is being done from me being here. So, all’s well. I am safe.

WE FOUND TONY!!!!

My heart literally melted when I saw him. He’s in school. He’s put on weight. He was wearing the shoes I gave him. He looked like a different child.

We tracked down Grandma again and children’s services asked her to come and see us. Not only did she come, but she came with the good news that Tony had started school in September. Even though she couldn’t afford the school fees, the school accepted him on good faith from the chief of the village. I found out the total cost for sending little Tony to a boarding school that’s specifically for children who are deaf and have special needs - £90. That includes all his clothes, toiletries, towels and bedding for the year. School books and medical care. Madness that something so precious, is so cheap. Yet also, so expensive.

I went to Chekombero school where he is now boarding and met him. Like I said, I could not believe the difference in him. His smile is enough to melt even the hardest of hearts (corny, but true), and that was something I was not blessed to see when I first met him.

I met with the headmistress who is a really lovely lady. Unfortunately we found out through her that when he arrived and she washed him (for the first time in weeks) she found his body was covered in bruises and lashing wounds/scars. He would cry all the time, shy away from any interaction with adults and fight with all his classmates. Now, he laughs, plays and hugs the staff who care and teach him. All this in 6 weeks. Imagine what his life will be like after 6 years of being there...

As a result of the beatings he has received by his Grandmother the headmistress is very concerned about allowing him home for the month of Christmas. I am too. Not only due to that, but because there is no food for him at home. There’s no one who really cares for him at home.

So, there’s a member of staff who has offered to have him come home for Christmas with him and his family. Giving Tony the family life he so desperately deserves.

Thankfully through the generosity of a friend in the UK Tony is now able to attend school for the rest of his life. I can’t wait to watch this boy develop over the next year..

It’s been a good week for appointments, new referrals, assessments and general working fun. I keep having gushing moments where I realise how happy I am here and how sad I am that one day I won’t be working here anymore...

However:

I’m taking a beautiful little girl called Maurine to hospital tomorrow. She’s 9 and when she was 5 she complained of severe headaches and back pain. Got taken to hospital where she was admitted for 2 months. Treated for malaria. No difference made. Over the next 2 years she lost the ability to walk, talk, feed independently, sit, communicate... be. She’s in the worst state I have seen a child out here. Unresponsive to anything. Complete negligence on behalf of all of the medical staff that she has seen over the past 4 years.

David and I are taking her to the hospital in Kisumu in the hope that she can be diagnosed with something. I’ve 2 ideas: meningitis or a progressive brain tumour. But no scan has ever been carried out. What’s maddening is that we know her life could have been completely different if the medical staff had investigated, rather than treated the symptoms. What child loses their ability to speak and walk without alarm bells ringing???