We started the day at a rehabilitation facility called
Cheshire Homes for children with mental and physical handicaps to teach them
how to be as independent as possible. The
caretakers/parents struggle finding time to bring the children as they often
have other kids at home and are required to miss work. But the facility does amazing things including
horse therapy! This is all supported by The Rocking Horse – an incredible organization
founded by our friend Denise who is strong, selfless, and thoughtful.
Denise next took us to RFM hospital to the long term care
ward. Her effort here is to keep the children educated while they seek care for
a (hopefully) curable illnesses. She hires teachers to work with the children so
they do not fall behind in school. She also has a play room for the children so
they can momentarily forget about their illness. We met a young girl whose house caught on
fire in November and she has been there ever since – completely covered in
burns from the tip of her head to her navel. She loves Denise’s hired teacher
so much, the doctors ask her to calm the girl down when they are painfully
changing her dressings.
Just when my heart couldn’t take anymore, Denise asked us to
come with her to Hope House – an end of life care facility for children. We met
a little girl who was 20 months old with an eye cancer that spread to her brain
– they are keeping her comfortable with morphine and waiting for the inevitable.
Her mother and her aunt were crying and I had to step outside to not make
matters worse. My daughter Tinlie Lihle is 19 months old and I couldn’t help
thinking about her in that position – I’m lucky that the tears are
uncontrollable now as I am reliving the day rather than in front of the mother
who is holding onto all hope that God will perform a miracle to keep her beautiful
sweetie alive. We met one of the caretakers at the Hope House whose name was
Sylvia – a compassionate hardworking woman. She was from the DRC and the rebels
killed everyone in her village, except her – including her husband and 4
children. When she became a refugee in Swaziland she asked for a work position
that would enable her to care for children so she could feel like someone
somewhere in heaven is caring for hers. Heartbreaking. We then met a 15 year
old girl who is mentally challenged with HIV who came to the facility at only
35 pounds. The good news is, she has fully recovered from the malnutrition and
is being released. The bad news is, she is constantly abused so they are
putting her on contraceptive injections to prevent pregnancy. Its quite common
here for the special needs children to be abused as that is what is also happening
with a girl we support from Malindza and a school for the handicapped Denise
supports. She said the children are abused on their walks home. It was even in
the newspaper this weekend that the children seeking treatment in the Mbabane Gov’t
Hospital were being sodomized. Hopefully this rape is stopped! We then met a mother
who is dying of HIV and opportunistic infections. She gave birth to Wilson 2
months ago and he is just now 5 pounds. He was born severely premature and
likely HIV positive. The caretakers are quite sure that both mother and baby
will soon die. As we finally came home for the night my heart was about to
explode. I was reluctant to even write this blog today as reliving the memories
is too much….but these children need our help!
Denise is asking for:
anything musical (preferably without batteries – recorders, children
xylophones, etc), anything textured like toys or cardboard books with touch and
feel¸ bright colorful toys, any rehabilitation toys (think baby toys… shape
sorters, wooden puzzles, etc.), rattles or other non-battery noise makers,
adult coloring books and colored pencils or crayons, and old laptops with a DVD
drive so our immobile hospice kids can watch movies to pass time.
These toys will be used to entertain end of life
care kids, assess deafness and blindness and provide rehabilitation exercises
for those who may be able to return home. We really appreciate anything you can
provide and totally welcome anything used… need not be new. Siyabonga (thank
you) for helping us help these deserving children.
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