I started my internship and trip to Africa with HELP-International thinking that
I would be helping many people and teaching them the information they would
need to fight their poverty.
However,
that was not the case.
I have been
taught more by the people than they have been taught by me.
Carrying rocks from the mountain to build Seya School
I’ll be honest; living in Lugazi was no piece of cake.
We lived in Africa, and we lived like
Africans.
A lot of Ugandans have
nothing, but at the same time, have everything.
They don’t need cars, fancy houses, or a lot of income to be happy.
They are thankful for everything that they
have, even though it is not much.
This summer has been full of amazing experiences and beautiful people that I
will never forget. I was the project lead
for two projects in Lugazi, Uganda: The Children with Disabilities Project, and
the Eye and Dental Camp Project. Being
the project lead for these projects I learned so much and came to love so
many people.
I grew to love the Children with Disabilities project. At the beginning of the summer our goal was
to construct different devices for the children that would fit their
needs. This was a good idea, but during
the summer we realized that this wasn’t exactly making the project sustainable. We kept asking ourselves, “How are we going
to keep this program sustainable? How
will it continue through the rest of the year while HELP is out of the
country? And how can we make it so next
year will be able to pick up this project and run with it right from the first
week?”
We made a therapeutic chair for this boy, Sam.
That is when we decided to switch our focus from the children to the
parents. We were still working on helping
the children individually, but we decided to focus on the parents about their
child’s disability. No matter how much
we help the children this summer; if the parents don’t know about their child’s
disability and if they don’t know what they can do to improve their life, what
is the use of just helping the child? We
need to educate the parents! Once the parents
are educated, hopefully they will have the desire to help their child on their
own without help from HELP volunteers in the future. We were hoping that by educating the parents,
it will make it so they will continue to help their child while we are
gone. Then next year, volunteers can
work on helping more families, present the information to the parents, and soon
start a support group within the community for all the parents who have a child
with disabilities.
After presenting the information to Joel's parents on Cerebral Palsy
After presenting the information to Noel's mother about Down syndrome.
I have come to love these children so much.
I know this is why I came to Uganda – to help these children experience
more joy in their lives despite having a disability. I have made a life decision while being
here. I am still planning on majoring in
Exercise Science so I can be a Physical Therapist, but I am going to specialize
in working with children with disabilities as a Physical Therapist. I have found my passion as I have worked
alongside Moses (a local Physical Therapist who works with children with
disabilities) and as I have gotten to know and love these children over the
past couple of months.
Partnering with Moses, we were able to get Daphine a prosthetic hand,
which she now is learning to use to help her with various jobs, like cutting potatoes.
Being able to do the Eye and Dental Campaigns have been a great experience as
well.
Extracting teeth at the Dental Camp.
The Eye camp we held in Mbale was very neat. Those people had gone
years without being able to see. Whether
it was from cataracts, presbyopia, or whatever may be wrong. It was amazing to see their gratitude. It was like instant rewards. Their smiles are definitely genuine. I could ask for no greater a reward.
This man had cataracts in both eyes.
These two ladies both received glasses and were very grateful for them!
Cataract surgeries were performed at this eye camp
I left Uganda August 8th. I wish I could
have all the time in the world to stay there and help those people. There is so much that can be done! Uganda will always have a special place in my
heart. The friends who I have made will
always be dear friends. I will never
forget them. I love them so much. They have nothing, yet have so much. It has been a very humbling and great
experience. I will miss this wonderful
and beautiful place so much and I hope I will be able to return one day.
