Under nourishment child recovered

  Sarah’s Doctor said; under nutrition is a consequence of consuming little energy and other essential nutrients, or excreting them more rapidly than they can be replaced. This state of malnutrition is often characterized by infection and disease. It occurs during either pregnancy or before the age of 2 years of age. It may result in permanent metal development and intensifies the effect of every disease. Young children less than 3 years are most vulnerable to malnutrition. Beyond the age of 2 – 3 years, the effects of chronic malnutrition are irreversible. This means that to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty and malnutrition, children at risk must be reached during their first two years of life. Child malnutrition is the biggest contributor to under-five slow recovery from illness. Children who are already under nourished can suffer from protein-energy malnutrition when rapid growth, infection or disease increases the need for protein. 

The Post Event report held on 15th November, 2014

It was such a beautiful morning with bright sun rays. The unpleasant sounds of cocks from neighborhood that woke us from sleep at 6:00am. Personal hygiene followed suit, break fast taken and 8 bags of used clothing, 1 box of washing soup, 20kg of sugar, 1 dozen of skin jelly, 20kg of salt and other necessities assembled to be loaded onto a hired vehicle.

Make-shift Classrooms/Building

Mr. Muyimbwa & Wife; the directors of Door of Hope School (DoH Kindergarten & Primary School); are professional teachers.

 Mr. and Mrs. Muyimbwa.

In 2005, they had a vision of starting a kindergarten in one of their rural home area but gave it time for research where to put it. So when chance knocked their way in 2009, they had to put it on their own ‘three (3) hectare land’ in Ssakabusolo village with 10 children including their three biological children. Research showed that within Lubugumu Parish & two neighboring Parishes had no Kindergarten. One of the problems they faced in implementing the Kindergarten was lack of classrooms. To address this program, a MAKE-SHIFT classroom was made for the Kindergarten Children.

In this classroom, these young children had to bear the heart from ‘papyrus/hard polyethen papers roof’ on sunny days & had to get wet on rainy days. The walls of their classroom cannot even protect children from the harmful elements carried by the strong wind.

Mr. Muyimbwa worked hard to roof the make-shift with iron sheets. To his dismay, he thought that he would only deal in Kindergarten for 5years without primary but parents with children in primary section were begging him to start a primary section next year because of the good result in writing & reading compared to the Primary 1 & 2 government schools around. This encouraged him to start it the following year 2010 with 200 children from government schools around. During the period of registration, Mother Mary Charity Organization had to come in to sponsor 12 Orphans, children in Abject Poverty (OVC) & Infected by HIV/AIDS (PHA). So the management had to make the make-shift three (3) roomed extension for 1, 2 & 3. The structure does not have proper wall & with noise all around, there may not be a good learning environment unless we build permanent structures, said a teacher. “We have to make our voice loud to the point of almost shouting just for the children to hear. And with several classes doing that at the same time, just imagine how hard it is for everyone. 

 

The make-shift building is cobbled from scavenged materials being built by volunteer being parents/guardians especially women & female teachers who participated in cooking & preparing meals for the builders, the male parents. At the end of term 3 2013, the area Member of Parliament Hon: Kiyingi Bbosa (Independent, Mawokota South Mpigi), donated new Iron sheets to replace the Papyrus mats. 

The teachers were worried not all of the temporary classrooms will be finished by February 2014 for term 1, because of lack of materials like nails & wood, Mother Mary Charity Organization had to lobby from a friend with a hardware who donated the materials in time and had to complete it. Mother Mary Charity Organization scrounges for materials like this. Makeshift accommodates at least 80 children, or the size of two nine-by seven-meter classroom while the makeshift building is designed for 40 children each. In January 2014, the school registered 160 & had to cut off some due to lack of enough classrooms to contain them. The increase of children is brought due to the best performance in writing & reading a problem Public schools. Parents don’t mind paying 20 dollars as fees school provided the academic performance is good other than free Education when the child cannot either read & write