An interesting week!

This week there was an Occupational Therapist here from the UK who works in paediatrics. I spent most of the week working with her with the special needs children, which was really interesting and I learnt a lot. 

As I mentioned before the general attitude towards special needs children here is that they should not be given treatment - when Amy asked social welfare what she should do with the SEN children as they get too old for Forever Angels their advice was 'stop feeding them.' It is completely shocking, especially as these are the people who are supposed to be working in the best interests of the children. Amy now had permission to keep the children until they are 18, but at the moment Forever Angels does not have the space, facilities or equipment to manage these children as the grow. It is incredibly sad and I have been trying to spend as much time as I can with them while I'm here. There is potentially going to be a special needs orphange set up in Tanzania, so we will see what the future holds for these beautiful children! 

A lot of the work we did this week was with a 3 year old boy who has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy - both his legs are very stiff and he is unable to walk so he commando crawls around. He doesn't have much core strength and is unable to sit up independently, which is really difficult as there can't always be someone there to sit with him. We went into the attic to see what we could find and found a wheelchair, which is definitely not perfect but is much better than what he is doing at the moment! We also found a bumbo chair which he could use to sit in to watch tv etc! However, he absolutely hates them both as he just wants to be the same as all his friends and doesn't understand the benefits it would have for him. This week we have had many tantrums trying to sit him in the chairs. However, today we had a breakthrough! We took in some shaving foam and sprayed it on a tray and he happily sat in his wheelchair playing with it for about an hour with some of the other children! When the activity was over he wanted to get straight out of his chair, but it's a start and hopefully we'll manage to get him to try it again! 

A new baby arrived at Forever Angels a few days before I got here and it was clear she had some special needs. She was diagnosed a couple of days ago with microcephalus (a small head - her fontanelle has closed completely) and then had some blood tests on Friday, which showed she had syphillis. This was passed on from her mother, who is currently on a psychiatric ward in hopsital  here, she is deaf and mute and was hospitalised after her baby was born although she may not have any psychiatric illness. I went with Amy to take the baby for an injection yesterday which will have cured the syphillis (one injection! It's that easy and it just isn't tested for here). She absolutely screamed and it was awful!! Her arms and legs are already very stiff and high tone, so we are unsure whether the syphillis caused some brain damage or whether she perhaps had a traumatic birth and has cerebral palsy. Her high tone means she can bear weight on her legs and hold her head up already! It has also become clear that she is deaf. Amy is going to go to the hospital tomorrow to tell the doctors her mum had syphillis and get the injection for her. Today I did some exercises with the baby to keep her arms and legs moving and I am going to teach these to the mammas - hopefully by starting early the damage won't be too severe and she will grow up to be able to lead a fairly normal life. 

We've also done some really fun things with the kids - we brought them to our house and filled the paddling pool, took them swimming again, and did some painting! 

Playing in the mud! 

Looking super cool in his giraffe sunglasses!

We've also enjoyed relaxing in some beautiful places on our days off

Tunza lodge - the best place to see the amazing sunset here 

Infinity pool over Lake Victoria

A lizard we saw on a day off!

That's about all at the moment but I'll update again soon :) 

A humbling experience

I knew when I came out here that one of the things I wanted to do was to visit a hospital. I've done placements in several healthcare settings in the UK and I was interested to see what it would be like here.

On Monday I went with the assistant manager of Forever Angels to take one of the children to an appointment. One of the mamas (the Tanzanian women who work at the baby home) and her son came with us too. On the way to the appointment and even when we got there I didn't know what the appointment was for. We arrived at Bugando Children's Clinic. From the waiting room it was just like any GP or A&E waiting room back home. We were given a number and had to wait to be called. I then found out that it was a HIV clinic, which meant that all the children around me were HIV positive. You would never have known it as they all looked happy and healthy and were running around everywhere! However after we had been there a while a young girl, probably about 18, arrived on the back of a motorbike and carried in a girl and laid her on the bench next to me. The girl was probably no more than 14 years old and it was clear she was very unwell - she couldn't sit up and could hardly keep her eyes open. It was awful to see and I couldn't believe that such a young girl was so ill. The assistant manager then told me that a few years ago the Mama who was with us was in the same situation. She was only 14 years old and her son was 4 months old. She was suffering from both HIV and TB and her son was extremely malnourished as she was unable to breast feed him. Amy found them and took her son in and when the Mama was a bit older gave her a job at the baby home. 3 years ago she was able to take her son home and he is now 6 and attends school and they are both on medication and doing well. I hope that the girl I saw today can make a similar recovery.

Eventually we were called in to see the nurse who took some obs (weigh, height, blood pressure etc) and counted the medication each child had left to ensure t was being taken properly. This is really important as if the HIV medication is taken even a couple of hours late the body begins to build resistance to it and it is not longer effective. Since there is only 1 type of HIV medication available in Tanzania it is really important people do not allow this to happen.

We then waited again and were called to see the doctor who did a quick physical examination and checked if there were any problems. We then went to the pharmacy to get the medication and tablets, which were counted by hand!! 

It was an extremely humbling experience and a bit of a reality check. You see all the TV adverts and campaigns back home but when I was say there today I couldn't believe that all the children sat around me had HIV - and this was only a few hours, on one day, in one clinic so it is a minute percentage of all the children in Tanzania who are HIV positive, not to mention the adults. And there will be so many who don't have access to a clinic like this or to medication. I was really impressed by the clinic. Although the process was a bit slow it was efficient and what they do is clearly working! They are very good at ensuring that medication is taken properly and parents understand the importance of this, with counsellors available for them to talk to if needed. 

I also have so much admiration for the Mama who was with us. Having heard her story and seen pictures of her and her son 6 years ago it is amazing how far she has come. She now has a job and her son attends school and they are both doing really well. She is younger than me and it seems crazy that this is the kind of reality so many young girls out here face.

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We took some of the children swimming on Sunday which was lots of fun! The water was pretty freezing and most of then cried at first but they enjoyed it in the end! One of the little girls was terrified at the beginning and wouldn't go near the water, but by the end I was teaching her to swim on her back and couldn't get her out of the pool!

Here are some pictures from the trip: 

Yesterday we took some of the big toddlers to the beach (which is man made as its by Lake Victoria). It was really beautiful and there was a great playground which the kids loved! The journey was interesting as there was 21 of us (11 adults and 10 children) in a car which was supposed to seat 8 people! This is pretty common in Tanzania! 

And also some photos of some of the incredibly cute children at Forever Angels 

Ready for bed in his Winnie the Pooh onesie!

Tho little girl is nearly 1 but is absolutely tiny and one of the cutest babies ever!

One of the boys with cerebral palsy - we took him swimming yesterday and he absolutely loved it!

My walk to work early in the morning! 

Week 1!

After a long and at time stressful journey I arrived in Tanzania last Sunday night! The journey was just over 20 hours from Heathrow to Mwanza airport and consisted of 3 different flights! It didn't get off to a very good start when my case was 4kg overweight at Heathrow...luckily I was travelling out here with 2 other girls named Hannah and Rachel and was able to repack some things into their cases! I've learnt never to trust our bathroom scales again as they were about 11kg out!! After that was all sorted I said (a slightly emotional) goodbye to Mum and Marcus and we were on our way! Arriving at Dar Es Salaam airport and trying to get or visas and work permits was absolutely crazy - there was no system to it at all! You just filled out a form and handed that along with your money and passport to a man at the airport and then hung around in a massive crowd of people waiting for your passport to come back to you! They weren't doing it in any particular order and we waited about half an hour! Some people were being allowed straight through passport control without even having their passports looked at...yet I had all my fingerprints taken!! We then checked in for our internal flight which turned out to be an hour earlier than we thought..but ended up leaving half an hour late and arriving in Mwanza later than we were originally supposed to! We were picked up by Amy (who owns and runs Forever Angels) and had our first experience of Tanzanian roads...interesting to say the least! I will never complain about roads in the UK again! Here most of them are just made of sand and everyone drives all across the road to try find the flattest route..sometimes the car is literally on a 45 degree angle driving along!

We then got to the volunteer house and were given a quick tour by Amy before heading to bed all knackered! There were lots of new noises to get used to in the night including bugs, dogs and a call to worship at some time in the early hours! I've now started sleeping with ear plugs in!

My bed and mosquito net

Monday we went into Mwanza town and Amy showed us around and we had lunch in a cafe run by street children which was really nice! We also stopped by the baby home and had an orientation!

The volunteer house is in a small village and all the local people are really friendly and say hi as you walk past. The children are always so excited to see us as we walk to the baby home and shout 'muzungu' which means white person...or apparently the direct translation is person who walks fast! There is a small market which sells fruit and veg, clothes, drinks and some snacks! 

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we did shifts at the baby home..it's an early start most days as the morning shift starts at 7.15. The mornings and evenings are madness with about 35 toddlers to be fed, bathed , dressed and entertained and another 9 babies! While the toddlers are waiting for their showers they watch The Wiggles and they know every song and dance which is so cute and entertaining to watch! The rest of the day is mostly spent outside in the garden where we try to set up activities for the children such as colouring, face painting, bubbles, balloons or using the paddling pool! It's always slight chaotic and the children have so much energy and they all want to sit on your knee at once so most of the time there is at least 3 of them climbing on you! They are all absolutely adorable, but it is extremely tiring and I'm knackered by the end of the day!

Watching the wiggles before bed! 

The tiny babies (up to 6 months) are in a separate house so one afternoon we went to see them and took a few of then outside for an hour, as the almost never go outside! They're so unbelievably cute, although I did get thrown up on quite a few times! In the last 3 days 3 new babies have arrived - a 3 month old girl and 2 week old twin girls who were premature and are tiny! I've not seen any of them yet but am hoping to see them this afternoon!

One of the new babies!

Me and one of tiny babies!

The smaller of the new twins

I've also done some physio work with the special needs children. There are 2 children with severe cerebral palsy and 1 with severe brain damage. They are all unable to move independently and spend most of their day in chairs. I don't think they get physio very often so myself and one of the other volunteers who is also a physio took them in the sensory room the other day which they seemed to really enjoy! There is also a little boy with less severe cerebral palsy who can crawl around on his stomach so I'll be doing some work with him while I am out here too! It's very difficult for children with special needs out here as they do not have access to medical treatment. The government believe that they are a waste of time and money and should not be kept alive. Amy generally only keeps children until they are 5 but she has had permission to keep the special needs children at Forever Angels until they are 18 as there is nowhere else for them to go. The equipment out here is very limited but they do have some so I will be doing the best I can while I'm out here!

On Friday I had a day off so 3 other volunteers and I went for pancakes at the cafe run by the street children, called Binty Maringo, which were so yummy! We then visited the western supermarket - everything imported is extremely expensive here and I haven't had any cereal yet as a box is about £5! Definitely having massive cereal cravings as I practically live off it at home! Then we headed to a local hotel and chilled by the pool and had dinner which was lovely! It is crazy that in 5 minutes you go from walking past many street children to being at an amazing hotel.

View over Lake Victoria from the hotel

So far I'm having a really great time! Haven't had too many horrible bugs yet although we did find a huge African snail in the house last night!

That's all for now but I'll try to keep updating as I go along!