Blog
Alison Fletcher and Neil Hughes, two of our trustees are visiting Rwanyana in August and September 2023 to support with unique aspects of the project.
August 26
Arrival
In 2022, Alison and Neil visited the village, and with the help of Nurses Brenda and Desire they got to know some of the children with special needs. Subsequently, over the last year, Brenda and Desire have developed a regular support group tailored to these children.
This group now meets once a week and supports 17 children and their carers. This is innovative practice in Uganda where disability is often taboo and people with disability are not supported by society.
Alison is a trained Occupational Therapist with experience of supporting adults and children with disabilities both in the UK and in Africa. We will be spending 2 weeks with the nurses, carers and group helpers to assess the children and create a plan to help them develop, learn and play.
September 1
The new clinic opens
Nurse Brenda started working in the new ‘Daniel’s Clinic’ today. This is a tremendous new facility for the village and replaces the original one room clinic. The new clinic provides a waiting room, consulting room, laboratory, dispensary and a patient rest area. Nurse Brenda has worked hard to get this up and running and is very proud of her new facility!
The special needs group
Nurse Brenda with her first patient, Aida
The new 'Daniel's Clinic'
The new clinic has a lovely view of the mountain. Before the clinic was established in 2019, the community were unable to obtain even a plaster or an aspirin in the village. Now they can be seen by a qualified nurse who will refer to other medical facilities if needed. The charity maintains a referral fund, as whilst most medical treatment is free in Uganda, transport, accommodation and food costs are prohibitive to many of the villagers.
In other news, Neil has upgraded our hygiene facilities and introduced a new soap on a rope to the village.
September 3
Learning Rukiga
Rukiga (pronounced Ruchiga) is the language spoken in Rwanyana village and the surrounding area. We have set ourselves a challenge of learning some useful Rukiga phrases on this visit.
George has volunteered to be our Rukiga ‘master’ (teacher) and came round early on Saturday morning for the first lesson. George is a very patient teacher! He’s involved in many community activities including the Kilinju group (older persons), church and the group for disabled children.
George
Rukinga vocabulary
Soap on a rope
September 4
Setting up camp
Today was the first day of a two week ‘camp’ for the special needs children and their parents/carers. The aim of this camp is to get an assessment of each child and make a plan of interventions that can then be carried out in the ongoing weekly group.
The children range in age from 2 months to 12 years. Some cannot speak, some have club foot, some have limb loss and some have complex disabilities.
We are aiming to make the camp fun and will be doing a mix of group singing, dancing and games and individual therapeutic sessions.
September 6
Settling in
We are already on day 3 of the 10 day camp and are settling into working together. The day starts around 10.30 to give people time to get there. Some live a fair distance away and walk in. We have provided for some to come in on bodas (motorbikes) as they live too far away to walk. We start the day off with a group activity. Today we used balloons which everyone enjoyed even when one popped. One of the mothers will lead us in a song or two where we encourage all the children to join in with clapping, dancing, using shakers and making a noise.
After this, we break up into different activities. Alison does 1:1 sessions with the children with more complex physical disabilities. She is working with Blessings to encourage her to sit in a good position and reach out for toys. Her mother is very keen to learn how to support her to be more independent. Alison is also looking at assessment tools that the nurses can use to plan interventions and measure progress.
Neil is making friends with lots of the group. He has been leading outdoor games, particularly with the group of children who are not yet speaking and are not used to being with others. Living is enjoying learning how to make noises after a successful tongue tie release procedure this year.
Everything stops for breakfast porridge, then continues until lunchtime. This is when the room goes quiet! After lunch we finish with a play outside if it is not raining and then a group song to finish.
Alison supporting Blessings
Living after his tongue-tie release
Crispus enjoying playing football
September 13
First Week
We have completed 5 days of the special needs camp. Here are a few of the best moments.
We introduced the pink gym ball on Wednesday. It’s used for active exercises including balance work. On Thursday we saw Charity using it, assisted by
her mother and 2 other mothers from the group. They were doing the exercises that we had taught them and were also having fun!
Dr Amos attended the group on 2 days this week. He works at Kabale hospital (the nearest referral hospital) and was invited by Nurse Brenda to review the children in the group and give recommendations and advice.
One of the mothers has a 2 month old baby with bilateral club foot. She was anxious about treatment so Dr Amos asked mothers of babies with the same condition to share their experience. This gave the mother the reassurance she needed and the baby will get treatment. The treatment involves the baby wearing special boots with a brace. Treatment for club foot is free from Kabale hospital.
Charity using the pink gym ball
Dr Amos visiting the clinic
Donated clinic supplies
Neil brought donations of disposable gloves and aprons, bandages, cotton wool and other clinic supplies. Nurses Brenda and Desire were very happy to receive them.
Blessing has started to take porridge from a cup by herself . Blessing has cerebral palsy and up to now has been fed by someone. The cup has 2 handles and is shaped so that she can use less effort to tip it. We brought 4 of these cups for the group and there is a need for several more to enable children with physical disabilities to feed themselves.
Anita also has cerebral palsy. Her hands are very sensitive and she doesn’t like touching things or feeding herself. Anita’s mum was shown how to massage her hands with Vaseline and help Anita to practice taking her hands to and from her mouth. This will help Anita get used to touch and hopefully start to feed herself. There has been an improvement in just one week.
September 13
Writing Letters
Many children at Bevan Community School are sponsored by people in the UK. The children love to get a letter from their sponsor.
This group spent most of Sunday reading and re-reading their letters from their sponsors and then writing a reply with the help of Aunt Peninah. Peninah works tirelessly for the children in the community and is always looking to meet their needs. Most children in the village call her Aunty.
Neil met his sponsored child Dawson, with his twin brother David and their father. The sponsorship means that Dawson can go to school, have a uniform and be fed twice a day. David is also sponsored. We loved their matching shirts!
Anita having her hands massaged
The children reading their letters
Neil with Dawson, David, and their father
September 14
Keeping Bees
Aggrey is 18 years old and he is an enthusiastic amateur bee keeper. He started to keep bees in 2020 during the Covid lockdown when all Ugandan schools were closed. A neighbour, Pafurah, taught him about how to make beehives and keep bees. Aggrey now has 5 beehives and would like 31! He harvests the honey during July and February and this year has harvested 8 kilograms.
This is the beginning of a new beehive. It’s made out of woven sticks and mud. Aggrey has 3 hives in a nearby eucalyptus grove. The hives are well disguised and not easy to find! The other 2 hives are high up in trees. The honey from Aggrey’s bees tastes amazing. We asked Aggrey what he does with honey. He gives part of it to his fellow hostel members, some to visitors to the village and the rest to the local council chairperson who uses it to make a special obushera (sorghum based local brew).
Aggrey is wearing his new beekeepers suit donated by John Sadler from Anglesey beekeepers. Before he had the suit, Aggrey used plastic bags for protection when handling the bees. He feels much safer now!
The beginning of a new beehive
One of the beehives up in the trees
Aggrey in his new beekeepers suit
September 16
Week 2 of the camp
Week 2 of our special needs camp is done and here are a few photos to give an idea of what we got up to. The rainy season has set in properly this week. For many people in Rwanyana, this means that it’s planting season and they need to be working on their land. So some parents were not able to bring their children in everyday and the numbers were reduced. But this meant that we were able to spend more time with the children and parents that came.
This is Able with his mother. She is helping Able to stand with the help of George, the group assistant. Able has cerebral palsy and finds it difficult to control his movements. George has been working hard with Able to help him to sit, to improve his balance and start to stand. Able’s mother has also been learning the exercises so that she can do them at home with him. The local carpenter has made parallel bars for standing and walking practice.
These boys enjoyed looking at the picture books made by trustee Barbara on a recent visit. Most of the children in the group do not have toys or books at home. The group now has a ‘toy box’ with balls, cars, shakers, books, teddies etc.
This is George working with Able and his sister. George has been an enthusiastic learner and is particularly good with the children who need 1:1 work. Nurses Brenda and Desire have also been shown how to do the exercises and how to review progress.
Able with his mother
The boys reading their picture books
George with Able and his sister
Anita’s mother has seen progress with Anita’s hands. She has been doing hand massage at home and encouraging Anita to use her hands to touch things. Anita is already more confident in reaching for objects such as this scarf. We hope that she will be feeding herself soon!
Chalk drawing has been a popular activity. The floor has been covered with writing and drawing most days. A new chalkboard will be put on an inside wall for the children to use.
Neil has been working with a group of more active children. Some of these children need games to help with coordination and playing together. Playing ball games was very popular. Neil did a lot of work with Living to help him find his (very loud) voice.
Anita and her mother making progress
Creating chalk drawings
Playing ball games