By Kathy Bowler | Director, Children of Blessing Trust
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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