Utete, TZ – Family trying to ensure a bright future for newest member

The AOM family has been involved with KCM since the garden shop started working with families to improve children’s health. Now the family is stepping into a new struggle to improve the health of the youngest of the family’s five children. The family is working together to ensure that the newest family member, sixteen month old Bashiruni, has the opportunity to experience his full physical potential life. Bashiruni is suffering from complications related to his birth and is still unable to hold his own head up. The family hopes that with hard work and early intervention Bashiruni can grow up healthy, educated, and productive.

The AOM family started an organic vegetable garden with KCM in August 2013. Later that year the mother of the family was hired by KCM to help them with product and project marketing. She was responsible or selling vegetables at local markets and also for bringing more families into the vegetable gardening program. In August 2014 the family received a loan from Better Lives to build a new house.

In May 2014 the mother of the family gave birth to Bashiruni, her fifth child. Immediately after birth there were signs of trouble with Bashiruni’s health. For weeks he could not breathe on his own. Once he had enough strength to breathe on his own doctors realized he could not feed on his own either. They determined that, due to complications during birth, Bashiruni experienced an extended period of time without oxygen.

Thankfully, doctors believe Bashiruni’s brain is and will be fully functional. However, he will require regular physical therapy to gain full use of his limbs. The mother of the family feels very fortunate that her son is receiving early intervention, which is critical to enabling Bashiruni to live up to his full potential. The Kindwitwi Leprosy Care and Community Development Association (KLCCDA), which works in the same village as KCM, provided funding for a doctor-prescribed chair which holds Bashiruni in place so he can do his daily physical therapy. In addition to the chair, the mother of the family has been going to Dar es Salaam with her son each month for check-ups and additional exercises. At a cost of roughly 20,000 TZS (US $9.50) per trip the visits take up a significant part of the family’s income. However, there is no more important investment in Bashiruni’s future than his physical therapy.

The mother of the family explains, “Normally in our village a child this age would be looked after by an older sibling. However, because Bashiruni cannot walk or sit up I keep him with me all the time. This can make some work very difficult. But I hope he will learn to sit up soon with his therapy.”

The family hopes they will find ways to increase their income in the future so they can afford any future therapy equipment, in addition to the monthly visits to Dar es Salaam.