MMN Dec 25 Mag - Online - Flipbook - Page 6
No Child Left Behind
Contributed by Brian Dorman (Director of Africare)
T
hrough my earlier charitable
work
sending
equipment to Ugandan
hospitals I was made
aware of the need for facili琀椀es for post opera琀椀ve care and
rehabilita琀椀on of disabled children.
This led to the charity I chaired
building a unit at our children’s
home at Mukono. Now we can
look back at 25 years, during which
thousands of children were treated, and led to us buying land and
building Acheru.
Many disabled or injured children were hidden away, so we
developed community work to
try to 昀椀nd them. We have had to
deal with children who had been
deliberately le昀琀 to die.
5
Our most common inpa琀椀ent
condi琀椀ons were osteomyeli琀椀s and
burns contractures. Most common among outpa琀椀ents were club
feet, cle昀琀s, and Cerebral Palsy (CP)
where our sta昀昀 gained a lot of experience with children previously
thought to have no poten琀椀al whatever, so were ignored and given no
s琀椀mulus.
We developed partnerships with
churches, schools, universi琀椀es, and
other NGOs and this helped us
cover a very wide area. We looked
to the north, a very neglected area,
and started work at Minakulu, being given a small government building and working very closely with
the local health centre there.
