May - June 2011
We finally have our new house for the integrated preschool and special education classes. The house is a short 3 minute walk from our existing house in Area 25B. It is large and spacious, having 11 rooms in total. We took possession of the house in early July and are busy now putting up the wall and repairing the septic tank. We still need to do some repairs to some of the walls, paint the house and do some other minor repairs before we can move the preschool and school programmes in.We are hoping to start the new preschool class in early September which coincides with the start of the next school year. We have already identified 18 children with disabilities. We will work out next how to identify the 12 able bodied children who will attend alongside our children. We are hoping to be able to use the fees from the able bodied children to hire a second teacher.In May we started our third outreach clinic at Adziwa in Kauma. We are really happy to see 8 children with cerebral palsy attending faithfully twice a week at this site. Over 20 clients have been registered so far and we have sent many of them for orthotics, eye appointments, orthopedic surgeon assessments and epilepsy treatment.At the end of July we will start the next outreach clinic at the Daeyang Luke Hospital in Mchesi. We had to wait to start this outreach clinic as Clara, one of our original Rehabilitation technicians got married recently and was away on leave. Eventually we will also start clinics in Lumbadzi and Mgwangwa.
In these 2 areas we still need to locate partner organizations..The next few months will be challenging for us as we juggle all the new programmes. Fortunately we will also have lots of support from some volunteers during this time. Please pray for us as we move forward.
In June we had a visit from a Speech Therapist from Arizona. Kate was able to bring an augmentative communication device for Tim. He is 14 years old and is unable to speak.
In June we had a visit from a Speech Therapist from Arizona. Kate was able to bring an augmentative communication device for Tim. He is 14 years old and is unable to speak.
He understands most of the things that are said to him but he cannot tell us what he is thinking about.At home and at school he uses gestures to try and talk to people. He is very excited to use this new machine. He pushes a button and the machine talks for him. So far we vocabulary into Chichewa. Omega has recorded most of the words in Chichewa and Tim is now learning how to use the machine. Eventually he will be able to use the machine to speak to us in simple sentences. It will be the first time that he will be able to tell us what he wants to say.
In Occupational Therapy we have been able to assess a lot of children. Clara, one of our rehabilitation technician has been trained to work with those children. One of the regular clients is Clifford. He is 9 years old and lost the use of his right hand and leg in October last year. He was attending an English school and was in grade 2. One of our jobs is to train him to write with his left hand. The other thing we are working on is to retrain him to use his right hand. Clifford is working really hard and we hope that he will be able to return to school in September.
In Occupational Therapy we have been able to assess a lot of children. Clara, one of our rehabilitation technician has been trained to work with those children. One of the regular clients is Clifford. He is 9 years old and lost the use of his right hand and leg in October last year. He was attending an English school and was in grade 2. One of our jobs is to train him to write with his left hand. The other thing we are working on is to retrain him to use his right hand. Clifford is working really hard and we hope that he will be able to return to school in September.
We have been blessed so much over the last few months with gifts of money, medical supplies and educational materials for the new preschool.Thanks so much to Brad and the Eugene Oregon team, Jan and the Louisiana team, Jessica and David from Guernsey, Pat and Ann from Canada, Laura and the team from Nanaimo and Toni and Beth from Malawi!Please continue to keep us in your prayers! We appreciate it!Thanks for your support