By Kathy Bowler | Director, Children of Blessing Trust
In most places in the world the spread of COVID-19 is getting more managable as people are responding to the request to stay home, wash your hands and not gather in large groups. Initially Malawi was not hit hard by the disease however since the middle of June the spread of COVID-19 has picked up speed going from 572 cases on June 17th to 1818 by July 6th. This has partly been due to Malawians returning home from affected countries like South Africa and the UK but also due to local transmissions with the first health care workers now testing positive.
As a result the country is in a partial lockdown. Children of Blessing Trust is operating essential services only at the moment in response to the National COVID-19 Plan.
Our Epilepsy Clinic is still operating at the main site twice a month but the Outreach sites are now closed. This means that our clients have to make the journey into the centre to get their Epilepsy medication. For some this journey may be 80 kilometers round trip! The numbers at the main clinic have doubled in order to ensure that all of our clients are able to get their medications in a timely manner.
We also continue to offer Nutrition Rehabilitation during the Epilepsy Clinics for those clients who have both a seizure disorder and malnutrition. As many families are struggling to find enough food, our centre is also providing our vulnerable families with food packs of maize, porridge and beans.
Our Epilepsy Clinic provides a consistent supply of key medications at each clinic which is one way we ensure that our clients remain seizure free if at all possible. Fortunately we continue to source the vital medications needed for the Epilepsy Clinic through this difficult season.
The initial funding that was raised during this campaign has now finished. Please help us to meet our original goal of $5000 USD to ensure that we are able to continue to offer this valuable service to our clients with Epilepsy.
Our clinic helps kids like Linda who faithfully attended our Epilespy Clinic as a young girl and was able to get her seizures under control. As a result she was is currently attending Primary School. Or Bwanali, seen in our cover photo, who after 10 years of uncontrolled seizures found our clinic and is now seizure free most of the time and has a steady job at a roadside stall. Or Sean whose seizures took away his ability to sit on his own but with access to the medications is now sitting on his own again.
When you donate to this project you help change a life forever!
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