May - June 2012
Geoffrey is a little charmer. He has a great big smile and always seems happy with life. It has been a lot of fun working with him and helping him learn how to stand and start walking. He stands up by himself now and is
starting to take steps. His mom is really supportive and brings him faithfully for therapy which is really important!
He attends our Children's Rehabilitation Programme in Area 25.He starts out in our level two class where the kids concentrate on improving their balance in sitting and then move on to practice kneeling, crawling, standing, cruising around and walking. We teach the moms how to do all the exercises and provide them with all the equipment they need to work at home through our Equipment Loan Programme. The more they practice the more they improve.
Samuel lost his ability to stand and walk just over 2 years ago. He lives in a rural village and was brought to our centre by his mother and father. We were able to send him to see the orthopaedic doctors from CURE Hospital. They diagnosed him with tuberculosis of the spine and started him on TB treatment. He was also sent to see the orthopedic doctor in Blantyre to see if there was anything that could be done to repair the position of his spine which was really bent. It was felt that he did not require surgery but would benefit from a spinal brace. The brace was made and now Samuel is back standing and walking once again! He is a very shy guy but we know how happy he is to be back walking again!
Kids like Samuel make us really happy to have great partners like the CURE Hospital in Blantyre and 500Miles Prosthetic and Orthotic Centre in Lilongwe and Queen Elizabeth Orthopedic Centre in Blantyre.
Now that Samuel is able to stand and walk again we are hoping that he will be able to return to school when the new year starts in September. To do this he needs a bicycle to ride on to school as it is far away from his home. Samuel needs a CCP sponsor
Richard started attending therapy at our ABC Community Clinic Outreach next to Mtandire Village. His mom is also very faithful and brings him regularly for therapy. He has also recently started walking on his own. He is very proud of himself and so are we!
Now that he has started walking he comes to our Integrated Preschool once a week so that he can attend speech therapy. Transport to and from preschool is provided for using funds from his Child Care Plus sponsors. CCP also pays for him to attend speech therapy. There are no Speech Therapists in Malawi. Fortunately because of the CCP sponsorship programme we are able to access speech therapy from a Communication Disorders Technician who works in a private practice in Lilongwe. Because it is only available through a private practice it is really expensive and most of our clients would never be able to access it on their own.
Thanks to those of you who responded to our request for help last month for the different projects we are working on getting funding for. We will send it back out to let you know which items are still available.
If you would like to help please contact us . We would love to hear from you!
Check out the new Thrive Malawi website at www.thrivemalawi.ca to see more about what COBT is doing.