Category: Children Stories

Let Positivity Roll – Inklusive Skating at Haydom Hospital, Tanzania

Let Positivity Roll! Haydoms kids with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus showing us there are not limits towards what you can achieve if you keep believing in yourself.

Loads of fund during our inclusive Skating Session in Haydom. Sharing the love and passion for skating and mobility together with the kids and parents was incredible.

Soon our House of Hope is also planned to have a special designed skating area for kids to practice their skills and tricks.

A big thank you to smallsteps-skatepark for their ongoing support and conducting the skating session and mobility training again. It was our absolute joy and pleasure having you skate with us.

 

Every Child deserves to be loved – SBH Follow up week at Haydom

Our kids with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus teaching us a life lesson – even if the road gets steep and heavy, don´t stop moving. It does not matter how fast you move as long as you don´t stop continuing your way you will reach your dreams.

We have had another amazing motivating follow up week with our children with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus and their parents at Haydom Lutheran Hospital. Education, practical training in catherization, bowel management and wound care and lots of fun on top.

Four new wheelchairs have been distributed, 3 kids received orthopedic surgery and clubbed foot repair to help them stand and prevent wounds.

With the help of many of you we had been able to come with a lot of donated shoes and gloves to help protect the feet after surgery and the hands while using the wheelchairs.

We have had a session on dental hygiene and nutrition just designed for the kids and – yes – we as well got to brush our teeth together with them as good role models under the african trees outside. Also we have had a special girls club only session to help them with using the catheter by themselves and getting educated about girls stuff to know.

The highlight of the week surely was the big inclusive skating event where everybody could show off on wheels taking those obstacles having great fun together. For children in wheelchairs it is essential to be able to use them correctly and not to be afraid to cross little daily obstacles with them. We are extremely grateful that this mobility training was conducted by smallsteps-skatepark Usah River again.

At last we could push forward the progess of the House of Hope. Now all drawings and permits are final and after the constructors agree on our plans we can finally start putting the foundation for the House of Hope and also a new future for our project and all children with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus at Haydom.

We still need a lot of your help and donations but as long as we move slowly and steady we are sure to reach our dreams to have the House of Hope finally built in Haydom.

A new road into a new life for Happyness

For the first time Happyness is smiling at us at eye level. So far, she has only spent her life from the ground. She has always had to look far up at the people around her. Everyday life has always taken place above her head. Carried by her mother, the young girl could never move independently. Yet she bears a beautiful name that could not better describe her character.

Happyness, translated as the cheerful one, has never lost her radiant smile despite all these circumstances. The girl was born with a spinal cord defect, spina bifida. She was never able to use her legs. The necessary physiotherapy was missing, so that her hip and also her legs as well as her spine stiffened at an early age.

The girl was never able to sit alone or to bend her hips, her legs are fixed in an unnatural cross posture and cannot be stretched. The girl can only lie flat on her stomach. During the day, the now 12 year old is carried around by her mother in a special sling.
And most of the day she lies in a corner on the floor of the domestic hut.

Surgical help comes too late for the little girl, as surgery at this advanced stage would be too risky for her.

Happyness has never been to school, but lying on her stomach she paints beautiful pictures of a world where she could play with other girls, go to school or learn a trade. For several years now, Happyness has been coming regularly to Haydom with her mother for follow-up care. Here the team takes care of her wounds and also her bladder function.

For a long time, our hands were tied and we lacked ideas on how to make her daily life easier and give her access to the world and education. A wheelchair seemed like a perfect solution, however Happyness cannot sit or be placed in a seated position without suffering severe pain.

Working with CCBRT, a local Tanzanian rehabilitation association, we put our heads together and designed a custom reclining wheelchair for Happyness to lie prone on. Haydom-Friends e.V. financed the production and purchase of the special wheelchair made of locally manufactured materials. The first test drive with her new wheelchair moved all of us, who had been desperately searching for a solution for this girl for so long, to tears. Happyness took the first “self-determined meters” into her new life. Again accompanied by a brave big smile on her face. We all hope now that this new freedom will also give her the opportunity to attend school.

Happyness story shows how important is especially your help, without which we could never have realized this. It shows that limits and obstacles should always motivate us to look for solutions instead of resigning ourselves to the seemingly impossible.

Happyness needs further financial support for school supplies and annual school fees. If you would like to help or contribute, please feel free to do so through the association’s donation account, subject: Happyness.

Thank you very much.

Theresia our little Spina Bifida Warrior

Article Paraplegiker

Looking beyond the horizon. For children with spinal cord defects in countries like Tanzania, continence is often a matter of life and death. They do not have access to a wide range of products from various medical supply stores. Often a catheter has to be enough for 4 weeks. Without it, they suffer severe urinary tract infections and kidney damage. In addition, being dry is an important requirement for going to school, for example. Often the kids do not have a wheelchair to get around on their own.

The magazine Paraplegiker has published a nice portrait article about one of our Spina Kids from Haydom, which shows how the typical daily routine of a child with paraplegia looks like in resource-poor countries like Tanzania, and with which difficulties the little ones have to fight every day, but also with which simple means it is often possible and necessary to improvise. Haydom-Friends is very proud of our little Theresia from Haydom, who even made it to the cover of the magazine with her story. Hongera Sana little warrior.

 

Babys first birthday

Baby’s first birthday is always a special event.

The first birthday of one’s own baby is an important milestone for many families in Germany. In this country, parents and grandparents really turn up the heat when it comes to decorating, baking and crafting gifts. But what does a baby’s first birthday look like in Africa?

A German mother tells how she prepared this special celebration for her son with spina bifida on his first birthday and reflects on their first year together. On the other side of the globe, a father from East Africa tells his story of celebrating his son as special every year …

Baby’s first birthday – Reports from two different worlds

A new wheelchair for Patricia

Maybe you remember that little girl´s smile that we had been sharing with you a couple month ago. She is living with her mother in a small remote village on the other side of Lake Victoria, more than a thousand kilometers away from the next bigger city Arusha and far away from medical services and supply.
Because of a delayed birth and lack of oxygen she is paraplegic and cannot walk. Barely able to move on her own she is not able to visit any school or getting physiotherapy. Most of the time of day she gets carried around by her mother, or is left sitting on the ground in the garden. The family is too poor to afford a proper wheelchair.

With the incredible generous help of Marcela Maranon (#thejourneyofabravewoman) and SitnSkate Hamburg we finally have managed to have mother and daughter travel to Moshi to get measurments taken for a special individual personalized children´s wheelchair. It was their very first big journey leaving their little village. Shedrack a physiotherapist from Moshi helped taking measurments and getting both mother and child accomodated while waiting for their new wheelchair to be made. Only 3 days after arrival the new and local made wheelchair was finished and little Patricia started to explore her new environment enjoying her new independency and freedom. The wheelchair is especially designed to resist the rough territorial surrounding of Patricias home. With the new wheelchair she will be able to move around on her own and even visit a special school nearby. Haydom-Friends e.V. will be updating you about her further progress.

If you want to continue supporting that little girls school education or helping her to get a medical health insurance card for this year you can support her with your donation on www.haydom-friends.org , just type “Patricia” and leave your contacts to receive updates and more information as well as a donation receipt. Thanks a lot for your help and support. Patricia is giving back a big smile in return!

Little wheelchair athletes

For a child with spina bifida, a wheelchair is not just a simple tool of transportation but a tool for self-determined child development. With a wheelchair, they can actively participate in daily life and also attend school. As part of our follow up week, the little ones could really let off steam with their wheelchairs and show what they are capable doing. With a lot of fun and joy they mastered the obstacles of the small parcours that we had set up for them. And what can I say, real skater talents were awakened. The ball was then aimed at a waste paper basket that had been converted into a basketball hoop outdoors. Michal Jordan has found his successor here. An afternoon in the spirit of mobility and fun.

African Cinderella

Shoes can change your life – Cinderella already knew that. Unfortunately, many children with Spina Bifida do not have a fairy godmother to fill their shoe cupboard. As a result, their small bare and often numb feet in a wheelchair often show severe injuries and pressure sores. To prevent this, socks and closed footwear are needed to protect their little feet. Haydom-Friends played fairy godmother for Haydoms kids and sponsored new shoes. The kiddies were super happy with their new sneakers. The parents were shown how they can treat their children´s wounds at home with natural honey bandages.

Support Our Local Campaign bringing Education and local Made facemasks

Haydom-Friends e.V. is supporting a local campaign bringing Education and local Made facemasks to remote villages in Tansania where people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.

Patricia is a 10 year old girl who is paralysed from birth on, probably because of a spinal defect called spina bifida. Without the help of her mother she cannot move around. With your help we can sponsor her a local made wheelchair for 150 EURO that allows her to visit the local special school and gives her the freedom of mobility. 150 Euro that can change little Patricia´s life!

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