Africa-Press – Uganda. For the past four years, Ms Aisha Nangobi, a resident of Iganga Municipality has been raising her granddaughter, Nabirye* who suffers from complex disabilities.
Nabirye * was reportedly abandoned by her mother at the age of two.
People with complex disabilities have two or more disabilities, including deaf-blindness, which is a combination of hearing and visual impairment, or a single sensory impairment combined with additional learning and physical disabilities or autism.
Ms Nangobi says she decided to single-handedly raise Nabirye because the father, who is her son, couldn’t look after her.
“I have to carry her throughout; she cannot sit or grasp anything, including food, she only ingests liquids and cannot chew solid foods,” she told Daily Monitor in an interview on Wednesday.
Ms Racheal Naisanga, a resident of the same municipality, is enduring a similar challenge with her seven-year-old child, Emma*.
“He is heavy, therefore, carrying him all the time is taking a toll on my health as I have started to feel some chest pain. For that reason, I either leave him inside or outside the house for most hours of the day,” she says.
Mr Sadik Mukoti, the Iganga District probation officer, said complex disabilities are “very serious”, adding that there are 58 children with complex disabilities in Iganga District (33 boys and 25 girls).
Statistics by Uganda Population and Housing Census show that approximately 2.5 million children are living with some form of disability in Uganda, with only about nine percent of boys and girls of schoolgoing age with disabilities attending primary school.
Mr Mukoti says with the help of partners such as Sense International Uganda (SIU), they have created awareness about the issue, changed attitudes among the parents and communities, and enrolled children with disabilities in schools, and improved on their mobility.
SIU is a non-governmental organisation spread across more than 50 districts in Uganda.
They are currently targeting 300 children with complex disabilities in Wakiso, Kampala, Luweero, Mukono, Iganga, Luuka, Mayuge, and Namutumba Districts.
Ms Sarah Kharono, the Holistic Early Childhood Development organisation’s project officer, says: “In Mayuge, 14 children are being supported with assorted devices like Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFOs), wedges, cerebral palsy seats, standing frames, wheelchairs, and walkers among others.”
HECD is a three-and-a-half-year project aimed at supporting the education of children with complex disabilities.
The project is funded by Comic Relief, a United Kingdom charity organisation, and United Kingdom aid (UK aid).
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