Every Tuesday is the team’s project day. This Tuesday we went to the Katalemwa rehabilitation home. They care for children with special needs, blind, deaf, after surgeries, cerebral palsy, club feet, and pretty much anything else. It is packed full of children all needing so much special attention. We split up and each helped in a different area. I worked in the infirmary redressing wounds of kids who had surgery done on their legs. The dressings had not been changed in a long time so it was really sad. But I sang songs and prayed for them aloud while I worked. It was really neat.

These were the first of many smiles to greet us!

This was one of many dormitories where the kids sleep and live.

Its actually really awesome because they work on teaching the long term patients how to raise pigs and care for chickens too! so when they are done rehabilitating they can go home and be better off than before!

chickens for meat and for eggs!

This is one of the class rooms!

These are the really really good animals the kids made out of clay in art class!

This guy was so so soooo happy! He couldn't speak so no one knew his name but I go many hugs and laughs from him!

Saidel brought his guitar and Moses his drums and we sang
Ugandan praise songs to the class! They loved it!

This is Beatrice! She was a joy! i helped her with her leg!

This girl's name was Jessica too! She was so happy!

this is Hope. Beautiful and only 13!

My friend on the play ground!

He was a big helper when we were washing windows! He is deaf and so loving! :)

It was great to be able to work on the girls as patients but then I got to play with them on the play ground too and become friends with them so that was really special :)

 

Pray for these kids. They are all so loved by God, by me and by those working at the home but it is clear to see that the facility is understaffed and some of these kids need one on one help. Working with my mom in her special education classroom taught me so much and helped me help these children. I know how much potential an autistic or a Down syndrome child can have because of that experience. They CAN learn and they CAN interact even though it may take longer. A lot of these kids were locked in a room most of their lives because the parents did not know how to help them. The people of Uganda usually think a child is cursed or useless if they have a disability and its embarrassing or dishonoring so they keep them inside. It was hard seeing kids that could be doing so much better and could be learning so much more about how to function in society. The home is bringing hope to a lot of the kids but it is still nothing compared to the kind of individualized care we give in the United States. Its hard for the staff because one class has so many different levels of learning and kids with different abilities and different disabilities so its hard to find an appropriate pace to teach or even an appropriate subject matter to teach. 

A deaf person, for example, would be able to function just fine in our society but they would need some special teaching at first like at a school for the deaf where everyone is learning the same thing at the same pace. But here because they don’t know how to teach or how to handle a deaf child they just let him run around the classroom and do whatever he wanted when he could have been learning. It is too hard to find time to teach sign language when there are 4 other autistic children in the class. It’s hard because they really are doing so much good for these children and their families and for the community but not nearly at the level that the United States has been blessed with. 

Pray for the disabled kids. Pray for healing of those after surgery. Pray for the staff to have wisdom and more resources. My heart really felt for these children.