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Children’s Villages Rescues Abandoned Child

July 24, 2007

Escaping a Living Death

 ”It was like he was waiting to die”.  Four year old John was found abandoned and alone in his brother’s house in the poorest area of Western Uganda. We learned later that John had been abandoned as a child by his mother, and his brother was all he had left.  Now a doubly abandoned child, John was also very sick child.  Ruth clearly remembers the first time she met John, “He could not talk, he had a very big stomach and was covered with scabs.” On the car ride back to SOS Children’s Village in Entebbe, John vomited the entire way out of fright.

Upon arrival John acted very confused, as if he didn’t know what was happening, and he didn’t trust anyone.  Accompanied by the new environment that was hard to digest, John was “very malnourished,” Ruth explained.  He couldn’t walk because it was too painful to put his foot down, he had inflammation and itching all over his body, and was diagnosed with malaria.  The doctors and mothers of SOS Children’s Villages were very aware of John’s critical condition, and he began receiving treatment immediately.

One of his rescuers, Goretti, explained that John wouldn’t speak a single word to anyone, including in his native tongue.  He had a hard time interacting with other children even as time passed.  However, “I really nursed him”, Auntie Mary explained, “and he changed little by little.  When he came, he couldn’t dress himself.  He sat and was like a baby.  He didn’t speak.”

Then one day, something changed.  It came as a surprise to the entire community.  After nearly three months, John replied to Goretti when she greeted him.  “How are you John”, and he answered “Fine.”.  To Goretti and the other SOS mothers, it was as if John had spoken his first words as a child.  The entire SOS Village community was aware of John’s first words, and didn’t hesitate to celebrate the accomplishment.

The story of John’s first words change depending on who’s telling the story.  The other village children swear he first spoke in an argument over jackfruit.  “You cannot believe it’s the same boy,” Goretti explained.  “He gets excited over everything.  He can answer questions, he can hold a pencil and he is doing well in school.”

Looking at John now, you would never be able to guess the agony and trauma he has been through.  John acts like a normal child inside of the Children’s Village: he is curious, chatty, and rambunctious.  He is comfortable in his new environment, has been given a new family, new home, new life.  Yet most importantly, he has been able to lead a happy childhood, just like every child deserves.

Topics: Africa, Child Abandonment |