Today was one of the most unexpected, awesomest days ever! I went on a home visit with several of the teachers from my school to visit a child's family who they were trying to get to attend Little Rock. The boy is deaf and Little Rock has a very good deaf program. The mother was previously informed of the deaf program and was encouraged to bring her son there, but hadn't. During the visit, we discovered that the mother hadn't been able to bring her child by the school yet because her other son, who is only two years old, had been severly burned. Apparently, the mother was boiling a pot of water and the boy fell right into it. Keep in mind, the houses in the slum are so incredibly small. Most are just one room, and it serves as the sitting room, kitchen, and bedroom. So at first you may think the mother was just being careless, but really with such little space, it probably was an accident waiting to happen. Getting back to the child- his name is Fedidedix- this accident happened a week ago. He was taken to a nearby hospital but only treated to a certain extent. The family couldn't afford all the necessary treatment or the medication either, so the family did what they could at home. I was told the medication cost 1,000 shillings, which is only about $12. I think that really puts into perspective how poor off these families are in the slum. When the mother brought Fedidedix out to show us the burn, I was shocked. His entire stomach was white as well as a small piece of his leg. After a week, I would have expected the burn to start drying up some but it looked very raw and fresh. He was crying a lot and it was obvious he was in a lot of pain. So sitting in this house, hearing about this boy, and seeing how much pain he was in, I had to help! My heart and brain wouldn't let me walk away without helping. It just felt wrong to leave and not do anytihng. I thought the least I could do is spare 1,000 shillings for this little boy. So the teachers and I left the house and I asked them if it would be appropriate for me to offer to pay for the medication for the boy. Of course they didn't have a problem with this so we made a plan to take him to the hopsital that day. When one of the teachers went back to the family to inform them of my offer, they were very grateful. The mother was in the middle of cooking lunch when the teacher showed up and the husband told her to leave right away and he would finish preparing the food. Once at the hospital, the doctor said it was first-degree burn. Also, because it hadn't been treated properly, it was infected. They cleaned the burn, dressed it, and gave him the medication he needed. The total cost was 830 shillings. I was amazed at how cheap it was, but to the family, they could never have afforded it. One of the other volunteers at my school was interested in helping out after I told him what I was doing, so we split the cost. We ended up helping this boy and his family in such a big way for such a small price. It was a really great feeling! It was a shame this even had to happen to Fedidedix to begin with but I was so glad I was presented with the opportunity to help!
You can visit the album Home Visit- Fedidedix to see more pictures.
