I can now fit in my uniform

Apr 28, 2009

REMEMBER Agatha Awor? The 12-year-old girl whose breasts were swollen to the size of a pumpkin? She is back in school! Clad in a pink uniform, Awor smiles warmly and is lively like other children in her class at Kyewolo Primary School, Nabuyoga sub-county

By Moses Nampala

REMEMBER Agatha Awor? The 12-year-old girl whose breasts were swollen to the size of a pumpkin? She is back in school! Clad in a pink uniform, Awor smiles warmly and is lively like other children in her class at Kyewolo Primary School, Nabuyoga sub-county in Tororo district.

Until last month, when sympathetic readers of The New Vision mobilised resources for her surgery at Mulago hospital, Awor’s situation was frightening.

Apart from her breasts being swollen, pus and watery discharge oozed out of multiple sores that had developed on them.

She was emaciated, her face pale, and she groaned in excruciating pain. However, all that is now in the past.
“I wish I had a special way of thanking whoever contributed to my treatment,” she says, “I would be dead by now.”

For a moment she stares in space, her eyes misty, but with apparent excitement and gratitude in her voice.
Having been out of school for nearly two years, this primary four pupil is now the centre of attention both at school and in her community.

Grace Amunyi, one of her teachers, says the school gave her a thunderous welcome the day she returned.
“Everyone wanted to hug her,” recalls Amunyi.

Elly Owor, her social studies teacher, confessed he was shocked to see Awor again. “I had last seen her two years ago when her chest was horribly full,” he recalls.

Anthony Okecho, an elder at Kyewolo village, says everyone thought the ailment would not be healed.

Her mother Marionzi Alowo can hardly speak. She cannot forget the unbearable emptiness, the sleepless nights she spent attending to her daughter in Tororo hospital.

For two years, the family had sold nearly every thing valuable to raise money for medical bills. By the time her plight was highlighted in The New Vision, the family had resigned itself to accept whatever eventuality came out of their daughter’s illness.
Michael Mijasi, the area district councillor, says the girl was always lying on the mat in the living room, groaning in pain.

But a section of The New Vision readers were able to fundraise for her treatment at Mulago Hospital. Awor's mother cannot hide her gratitude.

“All I can say, God should reward them abundantly,” she says.

For Awor, she cannot have a better dream – she wants to be a doctor, so that “ I can be able to help scores of poor people haunted with strange ailment but can’t afford medical bills.”

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