Spring of Hope Newsletter April 2005

 

Hello Friends and supporters.                                     A BIG THANK YOU.
 

 

Spring of Hope has grown so much since our last newsletter. We want to start by thanking you for all of your prayers and support. We have received regular and one off financial gifts – without these we could not pay the local staff for their work or for the travel and treatment of the children. We have also received gifts of children’s clothing which we distributed to those in most need. These were very much appreciated. We have also received a new laptop computer which is amazing. Our thanks to all those who have donated in anyway. (We can not regularly transport clothes out here so no more are needed at present).

Staffing

Spring of Hope has seen some new staff join the Team in the last few months. Karina and Paul joined the Team from New Zealand in September for 10 months with their children. Karina OT has been developing some new programmes.  They leave in July. We were also joined by Julie a student OT from New Zealand for 3 months. She has now returned. She enjoyed her time with us and her work was also very much appreciated.

 

Adie, a physiotherapist has recently joined us from the UK for 4 months. She is settling in well and started work in the villages and providing training for our permanent staff.

 

 

Part of our vision has always been to train up local Ugandans to work with SOH. We have recently taken on Rogers as a community worker. He joins Mawazi and Edith as local workers. Annette has also been working with us for a short while on one particular project.

 

Training

We have maximised the skills of both Karina and Adie who have been running short training programmes for us. These have included: background information about cerebral palsy, body tone, physiotherapy techniques, how to asses the disability and how to write a program for the child. This has enabled the work to grow and the staff to grow with the work.

 

  

Nutrition Programme.

A number of our children are malnourished so we provide weekly food parcels to ensure they receive the appropriate diet. Whilst most of the villagers grow vegetables we often supplement this with Soya, millet, posho and tinned butter. Where children are finding it hard to swallow we provide guidance on the best sitting arrangements. In the past parents have not fully understood these needs and that the children need to eat more regularly, neighbours are often enlisted to support parents in these cases.

 

Monthly Clinic

We continue to host a monthly clinic where we are joined by Paul and Harriet from Besanyia Clinic. It is here that new and existing people come along. Each month 6 or 7 new children are brought in from the villages. Word has grown about the work we are doing. Some come from miles and miles away. We never have time to see all of the children. The parents sit waiting for hours just in the hope that we can see them.  We always start off the clinic with a short time of worship to give the day to God.  In April new referrals included 2 month old Stella – we have sent her to a hospital for a life saving operation as she has hydrocephalus. They will do an op to release the pressure on her brain. This cost around £300 – very expensive but it will give her the chance to develop normally. Another case was 2 year old Nuludin with mild hemiplegia. His granddad has been given a course of exercises to do with him. We will probably need to provide a shoe and calliper for his foot in time to ensure it does not develop a twist. There are a number of stories about the children on our website.

 

  

 New Programmes

 

Karina and Paul have been able to establish a number of regular programmes. We have now allocated different Team members to the different programmes to make sure that we develop expertise and make the most of people’s skills.

 Move Programme for around 27 children. This group is for those children whom we think are most likely to be able to make rapid progress in sitting, standing and walking. Each child has an individual programme designed to improve their mobility. Already we are seeing much improvement.

 Behaviour Programme is a small group working with the parents addressing some difficult behaviour. It is early days but the parents are grateful for the support they are receiving,
Skills for Deaf Children.  Seven children are currently learning to use signs, pictures and symbols to improve their communication. 3 children have been referred on to Kampala Deaf School but funding is tight so we need more sponsors for the other children. They are also learning other general independence skills.

Learning Disability Group. This group is learning basic skills to help them to be more independent.  There are many children with learning disability on our books but we are working with just 10 at present, we hope to increase this in time as we can see what huge difference this is making.

  

Website

If you haven’t already checked out our new website then please do. www.springofhope.org.uk. It will be updated in May following a visit to Uganda by my parents, so expect some new stories and photographs very soon.  

 

Prayer Needs

Thank you again and may God Bless you for your continued interest in all that Spring of Hope is doing. Please do e mail or write to us we love to keep in contact with you all. Contact details on our website. We couldn’t do it without you.

 

Love and best wishes from all of the Spring of Hope Team

Teresha Clark, Waswa Mawazi. Edith, Adi Budd, Paul & Karina schreurs