The woman raising 98 children with disabilities in Uganda | Features

At the end of November, at the end of the afternoon, Edith sitted laughing hard and joking with two older members of his team during an lull between strong rain showers. They look at young staff members dodge puddles and sweat through a daily routine of aerobic in the muddy courtyard.

While the energetic pop music flourishes through the compound composed of three single and double floor buildings, Diego, seven years old, who suffers from cerebral paralysis, directs a concrete ramp towards a therapy room. His wrists twist, he slowly crawls until Edith spots him.

“Diego, my boy!” The 49 -year -old man calls with a broad smile.

She goes to him, her loose dress heating up as she picks him up and quickly swings her on her hip. He gives her a high five, and both laugh before turning their attention to training.

The heat and affection between Edith and his staff and the children of the orphanage give the impression that the place belongs to a very large family.

Edith’s journey as a figure in disabilities in Uganda began in 2000 with the birth of his first child, Derrick, to Jinja.

When Derrick had two days, he became yellow and cried excessively. Edith and her husband, Richard, took him to the hospital where he was poorly diagnosed with malaria. For two weeks, their son suffered convulsions and seeing another doctor, it was found that he had complications with his spinal cord after having contracted meningitis.

“When he made three months, it was then that I realized that my son did not grow like a normal child. He had a bad control of the head. He had a curved spinal cord. He was very flexible,” recalls Edith sitting in his office. Its walls are adorned with appreciation and merit certificates, and a portrait of President Yoweri Museveni is suspended above the door.

While looking out by a window on a playground full of children, Edith remembers how she and Richard had trouble getting information about their son’s condition and was ostracized by their friends and family who were afraid of them and Derrick.

“We started entering the hospital, inside and outside. At home, at the hospital, at home, at the hospital. And with his situation, especially with convulsions, people were like, “he has epilepsy. He has demons. And this is where I was rejected by the community, ”she says.

“They were like,” she gave birth to a child possessed by demons “.”

Historically and until today, education on handicaps has not been promoted by schools managed by the government or local clinics, which has led many Ugandans to resort to traditional healing. Without diagnosis and feeling helpless, Edith succumbed to social pressure and took his son to traditional healers.

“I tried to take him to different wizards. They cut him throughout the body, dirtying it with their herbs, washing it with chicken blood, the blood of the goat. They could take us at night to shower us with the blood of the chicken, but still, Derrick has not changed, ”she recalls. “It worsens.”

But then an elderly couple of his church encouraged him to return to the hospital and supported his family. Edith therefore returned with Derrick to the hospital. After 12 months, he received a diagnosis of permanent handicap. The prolonged lack of treatment of meningitis had resulted in serious brain damage and cerebral paralysis, leaving it non -verbal and unable to walk or feed for the rest of his life.