Rwanda - Pefa part 2

The orphans range from 6 months to 25 years of age. It is so much easier to think of the place as some sort of school or day care, rather than consider that this is where they live. In my first week the children are a sea of undistinguishable dark round faces. All heads are shaved so its difficult to even identify the girls from the boys. They are all dressed and all have shoes so they are better off than a lot of the local children. I spend the first couple of days becoming familiar with their routine. If you can call it that.
I arrive at 9.30 - all the children are up and dressed and amusing themselves while the mumma's do the washing. There are absolutely no toys or books to be seen. Half of the older children are at school, they either do 7 - 11.30 or 12.30 - 5. At 10 am morning tea is served for the toddlers only, it is a small cup of something they call porridge, but is the consistency of soup and smells disgusting. Occasionally they will get a small portion of stale bread roll. After morning tea they are marginally more settled for a brief time, and are again left to their own devices until lunch is served at 12. They have a huge lunch of cooked green banana's, potatoes, rice and round beans. Occasionally they will get some tiny dried fish, and even less often, a small banana. The older kids will eat at the 2 tables, and the younger ones under 5 (about 30 or so) will eat on the floor. There are not enough spoons to go around so the younger ones eat with their hands. I am pleased to see that they all wash their hands before eating. After lunch the rest of the older kids will go to school, and the young ones go down for a nap.

By 2 the place is quiet and still and the Mumma´s are busy doing the washing. They work tirelessly. There is about 4 mumma's on at a time and they are responsible for about 8 young children each. Most of them are also orphans themselves. You can tell that they do care about the children, but they are there around the clock without breaks and that would be too much for a saint to deal with! This is reflected in their motivation. The children are not played with, they're not hugged or consoled. They urinate on the ground and walk around in soiled clothing. Noses are not wiped, cuts and grazes not tended to. I notice that the children don't cry. I guess they have learnt not to. Whats the point?

 

I get introduced to River in the first few days. He is a wee boy of 6 years of age who was abandoned by his parents about 6 months ago. I get told that he is disabled but nobody knows what is wrong with him, so they ask me to assess him. He has cerebral palsy. Severe spastic quadriplegia. He is tiny. Looks about 2 years old. Arms and legs as thin as sticks, stiff as a board, and with visual and hearing impairments. Apparently he is in and out of hospital and its easy to see why when I watch him being fed. He should be on a PEG feed but thats is not an option here. Instead he is fed with a 5ml syringe which gets squeezed into his mouth all at once and he chokes, screams and vomits his way through the entire feed. Its horrendous. He stays in bed all the time, never gets taken outside.  He looks pale and frightened. This wee boy will be my special project.