Parents of disabled children hope for brighter future after training

WHEN the youngest of his seven children was born 18 years ago, Moise Habyarimana immediately realised that there was something wrong. And, medical results did confirm his fears: his child was born with both mental and physical disabilities.Though he knew he would have to face a lot of challenges, including the high cost involved in treating the kid and marginalisation, he was likely to face in his community, the 60-year-old farmer decided to face the reality.The resident of Rukoma Sector in Kamonyi District is, 18 years down the road, still struggling to find a therapy for his child. Obviously, he still believes that one day the child will be cured.“I believe that one day she will get well,” he tells me as he pushes the 18-year-old disabled child in a wheelchair.“There is no one else to cater for the child. My old wife cannot handle the task so I am the one to look after her,” Habyarimana says.“I have been doing this since this child was born. I look after her, feed her and try to meet each of her other daily needs. And I will not abandon her.”Habyarimana is one of the many parents whose children were born with various disabilities and are struggling to look after them, though facing the problem of limited resources.But, fortunately, he is also one of the over 20 parents who, this week, benefited from a training session in the basics of physical therapy to assist in improving their children’s health situation.Habyarimana believes the basic skills will help him provide better care for his child.“I strongly believe that my daughter’s situation will one day improve,” he observed.HopeThe training, which was organised by Handicap International and attracted parents from the districts of Muhanga, Kamonyi and Gasabo, sought to equip parents with basics in physiotherapy to give them a chance to look after their children with disabilities.For Vestine Mukakarangwa, whose first born was born with visual impairment, the course was timely.“It will teach us how to help our children, especially those with physical disabilities,” she says, vowing to put to use the acquired skills.“This training does not make them medical experts. It is just basics which would enable them to improve the level of care for their children,” observes Hortense Umuhoza, the in-charge of community mobilisation at Handicap International-Rwanda.“Whenever these parents come together, they comfort each other and devise best ways to look after their children. That makes a significant impact on the lives of children and their education in general”.Accessing health facilities, education and meeting other special needs that disabled children require remains the most important challenge facing the parents.“Treatment for such cases is costly,” observes Martha Mukagihana, a mother whose kid was born with malformation on the left leg.“I paid a lot of money to have the abnormality corrected. I could not eat or sleep before the case was successfully treated,” she proudly adds, showing a scar on her child’s leg after undergoing an operation.“Now I am helping other parents with such cases, comforting them and providing advice on how they can better care for their children”.But, children with disabilities also face another problem: marginalisation.According to Mukagihana, the society sometimes rejects such children thus denying them access to education, health care and other basic necessities. But, the situation gets worse when the rejection comes directly from parents, she intimates. “That’s why coming together as parents facing the same situation and with the same problems is helpful,” she says, noting that they help each other to overcome the challenges.

National

Parents of disabled children hope for brighter future after training