Help 175 Malawian Children become Seizure Free

Kathy is a 2 1/2 year old child who attends one of our Outreach Clinics.  She is one of triplets.  She has Cerebral Palsy and Seizure Disorder due to a difficult birth.  She started attending our Outreach Clinic at 1 year of age.  She was having many Petit Mal Seizres a day, too numerous to count.  She was restless, irrritable, unable to pay attention to her surroundings and unable to sit on her own.  She was immediately referred to the main centre for our Epilepsy Clinic.  There she was assessed and placed on carbamezapine.  Once she was on the medication she began to change.  After 3 months she was starting to sit on her own and was engaging with her mom.  Then COVID-19 arrived in Malawi and many of our programs were suspended including the Outreach Clinics.  Our Epilepsy Clinic and Nutrition Program continued to run but only at the main centre. In September when things began to open up again we were only able to reopen 4 of our Outreach Clinics but not the one that Kathy attends.  After a difficult January and February with many new COVID-19 cases and deaths we were able to reopen all of our Outreach Clinics. Kathy has once again been faithfully attending.  However over the past year she lost the milestones that were achieved.  She began having more frequent seizures, was malnourished with edema and no longer able to sit on her own.  Today Kathy was seen at the Epilepsy Clinic at our main centre.  She has received her medication.  She was also assessed by our Nutrition team and has started receiving maize soya porridge and Chiponde, a fortified peanut butter paste to address the malnutrition.  She will receive therapy and preschool education at her Outreach Clinic twice a week.  The nutrition team will follow her weekly at our main centre until she no longer needs the Chiponde.  She will be able to receive her Epilepsy medication once again monthly at her Outreach Clinic.

Your donation truly makes a difference in a child's life.  The epilepsy medications purchased with your donation stop or significantly reduce the number of seizures a child has.  It opens doors and provides endless possibilities . It allows a child to grow and develop skills like sitting and walking, go to preschool or school and our adults the chance to work and provide for their families.  It matters!

Help us make a difference in even more children's lives.  Spread the news about our project to your friends and families.  Give them the chance to partner with us to change the lives of children just like Kathy.

Thanks so much for your support.  It means the world to us!

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Can you imagine your child seriously ill and in the hospital with Cerebral Malaria.  Watching while the medical staff desperately try to get his fever under control.  Knowing that so many children die of cerebral malaria every year.  Can you imagine how you would feel when they finally tell you they have treated the malaria and your child is ready for discharge.  The only problem is that he can no longer sit, walk, talk or even see.  Worse yet he cries non stop.  This is what happened to Seriso's mom.  Seriso was only 2 years old.

His mom heard about Children of Blessing Trust and brought her son to us for help.  We knew that one of our Epilepsy medications often helped children like Seriso.  So even though the next Epilepsy Clinic was still a week away we called our doctor and asked for help.  She was able to get Seriso on Carbamezapine right away.  It has a calming affect on the brain which is often very irritated after a major illness like Cerebral Malaria.  After 10 days on the medication Seriso had finally stopped crying and was able to concentrate on relearning all that he had lost.

He faithfully attended our Children's Rehabilitation Program, slowly regaining his milestones.  When he was able to walk he started attending our Preschool as well.  All along he attended our Epilepsy Clinic every month.

Today Seriso is able to walk and is slowly learning how to talk again.  He is attending a Special Class at the school near his home.  He still needs Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Special Educations services which he can get at Children of Blessing Trust.

He has the most amazing attitude to life which can be seen in his smile.  It lights up the world!

Your donation to the Children of Blessing Trust GlobalGiving Campaign Help 175 Malawian Children Become Seizure Free helps us make sure that medications like Carbamezapine are available for children like Seriso.

Thank you for being part of Seriso's story!

Please spread the word to your friends and family and help us get to our target of $5000.  This December GlobalGiving is doing two different campaigns to help us reach the target.  Giving Tuesday is on December 1. GlobalGiving will add funds to our account as donations come in!  Also if COBT gets new monthly donors between December 14 and 18 GlobalGiving will match the funds 200%.  These are wonderful opportunities for us to raise the much needed funds.

Thanks again so much for your help!

Links:

• Children of Blessing Trust Facebook page