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Dream for a Better Future
Faith gives BethanyKids the credit for accepting her disability. Twelve-year-old Faith has complete lack of sensation in her left leg, confining her to a wheelchair. However, Faith never complains about her lack of mobility. She says: “I would not ask God to change anything about me. I have learned to accept my condition after talking with Francesca.” She also says BethanyKids has made an incredible impact at Joytown. “They are doing so many things for us. They never give up and always encourage us.” The staff taught Faith proper wound care, and now she does not require surgery at Kijabe Hospital. Many students like Faith are grateful to BethanyKids for helping them accept their condition and dream for a better future.
More Than Words Can Tell
Rose’s smile conveys more than words can tell. In one day she received a new wheelchair and new life in Christ. Rose is 2nd in her family of three siblings. She was born with Spina bifida, and later developed hydrocephalus. Rose has been using a wheelchair too big for her, and tears well in her eyes as she narrates how she was unable to go to church, because she had no one to push her. But she received a modified wheelchair from the Hope Haven team from the US that visited Joytown and distributed wheelchairs which were modified for the individual user.
Thank You, Nurses!
Our nursing team met today, discussing how to better serve their patients in 2012. According to Ann Mulwa, the BKKH Nursing and Allied Services Manager, the points of discussion were a SWOT Analysis, setting objectives for 2012, addressing nursing issues and the immediate way forward for the team. Please pray for the nurses as they deal with the day-to- day issues of children in the wards.
"Teach him the basics"
BethanyKids’ Neuro Mobile Clinic visited Joytown Primary School last Friday. They evaluated over 40 children from the primary and secondary school, and outpatients from the community. The team asked specific questions about each child’s condition and its side effects. One nurse, Eunice Kagai, said children with incontinence need to be seen annually for bladder evaluation and a renal ultrasound.
"Never tire of doing what is good"
It was "just" another trip to Dadaab, like the dozens that we have taken before over the past 5 years. Heat, dust, lots of needy children with neglected surgical conditions. And yet, things were different this time around. The patients were all there, but there was a desperation, a helplessness that I had not seen before. There were also hundreds, thousands, of refugees chaotically settled in make-shift areas across the camps. And there were mothers with emaciated children in their arms and sad, expressionless faces. This past summer the famine in the Horn of Africa had started, and I was face-to-face with some of the realities of this humanitarian disaster. Over the next few months our little organization, BethanyKids, had to grapple with ways to respond to this crisis, to continue bringing "healing and hope" to the children whom God had placed in our path.