Kathy Bowler's May/June Report from Lilongwe Malawi!
Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy Services
Children of Blessing Trust has been selected as a recipient of the U.S. Ambassador’s Small Grant Fund for the purchase of equipment for all 6 of the Outreach Clinics! Now children will have access to quality therapy without needing to travel to the main clinic except for special services such as the equipment loan program, the nutrition program or the Integrated preschool.
The Mngwangwa Outreach Clinic opened on June 26 when Clara and Bridget took a truckload of equipment to the new site! 19 clients were waiting for them. 3 new children, 2 new adults and 14 of our existing clients made the opening day a great success. It was very nice to see some of our children who were unable to come to the Area 25 site come to the outreach clinic. It is also exciting because the Mngwangwa Moms found us the site for the Outreach Clinic and have been very involved in the start up of this clinic! They normally travel 20 kilometres to reach our centre in Area 25 so it will be very nice for them to be able to have regular therapy services closer to home.
Our third Rehabilitation Technician comes on board on July 8th. He will be able to take over the Mngwangwa Outreach Clinic and expand it to twice a week.
19 Children went for further hearing screening with the new sophisticated hearing screening equipment now available at the ABC Community Clinic. One of these children had been ‘deaf since birth’ according to his grandmother. With this new equipment we were able to learn that he is not deaf at all but has a speech and language delay. He is now attending speech therapy regularly!
Preschool and Special Education Programs
On July 1st we will also have our new Special Education Teacher on board. We are really excited to start a new partnership with a church in Australia that has enabled us to hire our first fulltime Malawian Special Education Teacher for the Learning Disabled. Even before she has started working for us she has begun organizing the classes and the work she will do!
June and July are the coldest months in Malawi. The temperature drops down below 10 degrees Celsius overnight. We are really happy to help our kids by giving them warm sweaters and blankets.
On June 9th children with hearing impairments went to the Mua School for the Deaf for an assessment to see if they can start school in September. We already have 9 children attending this school!
We are pleased to offer interested parents and their children access to Sunday School lessons, a Bible Club and a radio program that reads the New Testament in Chichewa!
Tracy’s Story
Tracy has changed a lot since she started attending COBT at our Lumbadzi Outreach Clinic, 15 kilometres from our main site. She was born with a cleft lip and palate and as a result was very malnourished when she first arrived. We gave her maize soya porridge and chiponde, a fortified peanut butter paste and she began to really improve. Her Mom brought her faithfully for therapy 2 times a week. She is now learning how to walk using a walking frame. In August this year she will have the cleft palate repaired when Operation Smile comes again. What a difference a year makes!