Taking A Stand For Health
56-year-old Margaret Namata is the single-mother of one of our sponsored student’s, Joseph Wasswa Ntwasi.
On September 25th 2023, Margaret was hospitalized at H.K Medical Centre – a private medical facility in Masaka.
This was discovered after Children of Uganda (COU) made a follow up on why Joseph hadn’t reported to school on time. We learned that Margaret was in a critical state and Joseph was the only one available to take care of her.
At the time, she could neither walk on her own nor speak.
COU intervened immediately by visiting her in the hospital and offering psychosocial support for the children.
We also took her to our medical partner, Alive Clinic, for further treatment. Margaret was subjected to several tests and a CT scan, but most results were negative. She was advised to feed on nutritious foods and have physiotherapy to regain functioning.
In addition to medical support, COU provided Margaret with nutritious food stuffs including; milk, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, fish, juice and fruits all intended to boost her diet as recommended by the doctors.
Within a few days of medical support and proper feeding, an improvement was observed in Margaret’s health. She could afford a smile, eat a little on her own, sit upright by herself, tried standing on her own and also made a few steps by herself – all encouraging signs of recovery!
The continuous psychosocial support and provision of nutritious food supplements on a weekly basis has helped improve Margaret’s health and boost her immunity. Although she is still weak, there is a great improvement.
The main challenge for the family is the large hospital bill incurred during Margaret’s initial stay (amounting in 2,055,000 Ugandan shillings or $587). Without Children of Uganda’s help they would not have been able to afford the necessities Margaret needs to aide her poor nutrition.
We only wish we could do more for Margaret and other families facing hardship.
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