Katalemwa, a miracle for handicapped children

May 19, 2011

EVERY year, thousands of children are brought to the doors of Katalemwa Cheshire Home for rehabilitation services. The centre treats debilitating physical and mental disabilities that affect more than 1.2 million children in Uganda.

TUMAINI AWARDS

By FREDERICK WOMAKUYU

EVERY year, thousands of children are brought to the doors of Katalemwa Cheshire Home for rehabilitation services. The centre treats debilitating physical and mental disabilities that affect more than 1.2 million children in Uganda. It is located at Mpererwe off Gayaza Road.

The challenge is to restore hope and dignity to children who thought they had lost everything.

One of the most challenging patients at the home is 10-year-old Ali Luwuka.

“He came to us about six months ago. His mother carried him through the gate, his knees were literally under his chin and he had crawled up in one position on the floor for so long,” Collins Mugabi, the programme secretary for Katalemwa Cheshire Home explains.

Luwuka says he was totally lame and thought he was going to die.

“My parents had taken me to Mulago Hospital, but I failed to recover. I had given up,” explains the tearful Luwuka.

Like many children in rural Uganda, Luwuka was born a normal child. However, he got an infection of the bones at the age of three and due to ignorance, his parents did not take him to any health facility, early enough.
It was difficult for Luwuka’s family to help him cope with discrimination and isolation.
Luwuka could not play with other children, go to school or share anything with others, he was an outcast.

Eventually, his mother heard over the radio that if she could get him at Katalemwa, he might get cured.

“His knees had become like chicken legs and his little body was completely malnourished. He was not eating because his body could not allow any food,” Edrine Galiwango, the programme team leader Katalemwa Cheshire Home for rehabilitation services, says.

Miracles

Luwuka underwent surgery of the knees and was put on a physiotherapy programme.
He was taken through daily physical exercises of walking and stretching.

“At first, it was not easy. He could not walk at all but with time and more exercises, Luwuka started walking,” Emmanuel Odhiambo, a physiotherapist says.

The children admitted to Katalemwa are mentally challenged and have speech difficulties.

Five-year-old Grace Ishemere has been at the home for over one - and - half years. Ishemere was brought here because she was unable to chew and swallow food.

She was suffering from cerebral palsy, a medical condition that paralyses the lower limbs or the upper limbs.

“However, during the programme, we also learnt that her feet were flat and she could not balance properly when she tried to stand. We also discovered that she could not also speak properly,” Mugabi explains.

Ishemere was taken through a physiotherapy exercise of learning how to eat. Eventually, she started chewing food and swallowing. A speech therapist also took her through the exercise of speech.

“During this process, we help them to speak and pronounce certain words. She is learning and has joined primary one this year,” Clara Hudson, an occupational therapist says.

Five-year-old Rose Nakidde is deaf and suffering from epilepsy. Nakidde has been at the home for about a year.

“There is no cure for epilepsy but if somebody is given drugs routinely, they can stay as long as 30 years without suffering any case of epilepsy. The challenge is that treating deafness is hard,” adds Mugabi.

Dealing with social
shame and isolation

Everyday, Katalemwa Cheshire Home deals with patients whose self-esteem has been destroyed.

Counsellor and teacher, Betty Apio, helps the children cope to fit in society. According to her, children who come here suffer from social isolation.

“As much as we may treat the conditions, the child may never heal if they are being scorned at by the community. We therefore take them through a programme that will help them to heal faster,” she says.

Apio teaches the children how to socialise. Eventually the children gain self-esteem.

Empowering disabled children economically

According to Mugabi, about 80% of the children who come to Katalemwa are from poor families.

“We have empowered them economically through income generating activities,” he adds.
At Katalemwa, there is poultry farming, metal works and piggery. The children and their parents are taken through a training programme that helps them to know how to run the projects.

At the end of the training, the children and their parents are encouraged to form a group and one of the projects is given to them when they leave the home. “Some choose piggery or poultry,” adds Mugabi.

A group consists of about 100 individuals. Each is given a piglet or chicken and when it produces, a member of the group takes the offspring on a rotational basis until all the members benefit.

According to Mugabi, there are 80 groups countrywide benefiting from income generating projects.

Humble beginnings

Sixty-year-old George Makombe, an accountant at the home, says it started in 1970 as a rehabilitation home for disabled people who could not cure.

“People in Mulago Hospital who could not get healed were transferred here,” he says.

Makombe, himself disabled, was among the first to be brought to the home.

He says he was rehabilitated to the extent that he started going to school while at the home.
According to Makombe, in 1996, they realised that they could not maintain adults forever because they did not have enough funding.

“They turned the home into a children centre and made sure that they did not spend the rest of their lives there,” he says.

Services
Katalemwa Cheshire Home has a clinic that treats children with epilepsy, speech impediment and mental problems.

They operate the clinic every Monday and make outreach visits to villages once a month. They also have an orthopaedic clinic that treats children with bone problems.

The clinic treats infected bones, broken bones and those who have suffered polio. The clinic also treats problems like hydrocephalous, cleft lip, rickets, club foot and overlapping bones.

The home has medical experts from the UK who treat children.

They have a number of experts including doctors, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and social workers.

Recovery
According to Mugabi, over 80% of the children are able to recover fully.

He says for a child to be admitted at the home, the parent must pay sh7,000 to meet food expenses.

The home uses parents, rural health workers and district health facilities to identify the disabled children.

“We provide equipment and drugs for free. We sensitise the people about our services,” he says.

FACT FILE:
Name:
Katalemwa
Cheshire Home
Project: The centre treats debilitating physical and mental disabilities
Location: Mpererwe, Gayaza Road.
Motivational statement: “At first, it was not easy. He could not walk at all but with time and more exercises, Luwuka started walking”


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