July - August Update from Children of Blessing Trust
Tamara has a whole new lease on life! When she began attending our Children’s Rehabilitation Program she was malnourished and weak. Her family lives in a very remote village. Her mother walks 20 kilometres each way with Tamara on her back just to bring her for therapy and she comes for therapy 3 times a week. Now that is commitment! We started her on the Nutrition Program right away. She received 4.5 kg of maize soya porridge to cook at home every 2 weeks. When we started the Chiponde Program she also benefited from the locally made fortified peanut butter paste. Now Tamara has lots of energy and is learning how to stand and walk by herself using a walking frame. You can tell by her smile that she thinks walking is fun! She gets to take the walking frame home now courtesy of our Equipment Loan Program so that she can practice walking everyday and she attends our Integrated Preschool. Tamara is sponsored through the Child Care Plus (CCP) program. As a result Tamara and her mom are able to take a bicycle taxi to and from our Centre. The sponsorship pays for the Chiponde and any specialized equipment that she needs. It will even pay for her preschool fees. Things are really looking up!
Victor is almost 3 years old. He started attending our Children’s Rehabilitation Program when he was only 6 months old and has been attending therapy faithfully ever since. He was born prematurely and spent the first 20 days of his life in an incubator. Once he started attending our Children’s Rehabilitation Program he was started on the Nutrition Program right away. He receives maize soya porridge and Chiponde regularly. Just like Tamara he is working on learning how to stand and walk on his own. He wears special splints on his knees and feet. They give him the support he needs to stand. He is not yet ready for a walking frame but if he keeps on working hard at therapy he will be ready soon! He has started to learn how to hold on to things with his hands and eats on his own now. This will help him learn to stand holding onto a walking frame by himself and begin walking!
For the first time we have a gap year student from Germany working with us for 1 year. Valerie arrived in August and has chosen to work in the preschool. We often have over 30 kids attending the Integrated Preschool each morning so the extra hands are great! We are excited that 3 of our preschool children have graduated to Primary School. All 3 are sponsored through the CCP program that pays for their school fees at a private Christian Primary School. Many children attend Occupational Therapy (OT) sessions at our preschool to prepare them for school too.
These three children hope they can start Primary School next year. 