| August 2025 report: News of former patients, and information on rehabilitation |
| Kasumba was identified by the CBR team. It was not easy to persuade the parents to consent to his treatment, and this only happened after the involvement of local leaders and police. |
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| Kasumba before treatment |
| Today this boy and the entire family are so happy after seeing the work done. His mother says: 'It took me so long to believe that my boy will be fine, I had given up on him knowing that this was his fate to be lame. He was walking, running and playing like other normal children so I wasn't bothered at all, the entire family and village were used to him. He used to complain of pain when still young but I think with time he got used to it. I was told he could be treated and people told me about the places where he could go but my fears and ignorance stopped me. I really thank people from Acheru who didn't give up on us after all the long journeys and being turned down by me'. |
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| Kasumba after treatment |
| Kasumba says 'I'm so happy that I walk like other children, my friends and other people at our village used to call me names because of the way I walked and this was hurting me. May God bless you all.' |
| MUSASIZI Ivan, 14 year old boy from KAYUNGA DISTRICT NAZIGO VILLAGE, came to ACHERU with a complaint of bending knee. There was no medical intervention before coming to ACHERU. |
| Surgery was done at CORSU, followed by two months of treatment at Acheru. Parents are blessed with 12 children and Ivan is the 5th born. Farming is the source of income in the home. |
| Mother narrates that "I gave birth to my baby when very normal. I noticed the deformity when he was 7 months but there was no pain. I took him for consultation and nothing was done by then. I was encouraged to do some exercises which I did for some time but there was no improvement and I gave up. When he started walking the leg was curving even more. We returned to hospital but still nothing was done. From then we accepted that he was going to be like that. |
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| Ivan before treatment |
| Life hasn't been easy with him, he faced a lot of challenges when walking and sometimes he experienced pain. Doing some of the work independently was difficult. As a little boy he liked to play football so much but it wasn't possible most of the time. He used to fall so much whenever he tried to run. |
| God doesn't forget His people, after some time people from ACHERU visited us at and found Ivan in a terrible situation, they felt so touched and encouraged us to come back to the hospital. We worried so much about the payments but God is good all time my boy found blessings and a lot of favours in people we found at ACHERU. |
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| Ivan after treatment |
| We were given the best treatment and care ever, my boy is doing so fine, the leg is no longer curving. He is a happy boy now". THANK YOU SO MUCH ACHERU, GOD BLESS YOU |
| Written by Nakabugo Rose |
| Ivan's story is a fairly typical one for Acheru. Treatment was relatively straightforward, and has clearly made a big difference to Ivan. What I think is notable however is Ivan's age. He clearly had a problem for a very long time, but nothing was done about it. We've seen it so many times - fear, superstition, thinking that the disability is a punishment or judgement on the family, worries about cost of treatment. So much suffering could have been avoided. We have to find these children, and we have to educate communities. The problem isn't just in remote areas. We often find children with easily treatable conditions living for years close to major towns and hospitals but continuing to suffer. Don't think that it's just the poor and uneducated, we can encounter the same issues with relatively well off and educated families who for whatever reason do not want their child to be treated, and we have to convince them otherwise. |
| Rehabilitation |
| Acheru is a rehabilitation unit, and often after successful medical intervention there can still be difficulties in settling a child back with their family. The community team do sterling work in this field, working closely to have a child accepted back into a family which may previously have rejected them. Not all though can be returned to families, the circumstances are just so bad or the risks of abuse too high to return them. It may be the mother or the grandmother who pleads with Acheru to take the child away, or they may simply abandon the child with us. |
| You may remember Daisy, whose story was on page 31 of the Acheru booklet. She was brought to Acheru from the islands, and her home circumstances were such that her mother could not take her back there. Since then she has been cared for by our matron, Margaret, one of four girls she cares for who could not go back to their families. She has done well, and is now in P6. |
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| Daisy when she first came to Acheru |
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| Daisy with Margaret in 2017 |
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| Daisy in 2015 |
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| Daisy now |
| However, while there are children who have been in Acheru for a long time due to concerns about returning them to their homes the staff never give up in their efforts to rehabilitate them, whether through working with the child's family to ensure a better home environment, or looking for other family members who can help. Children may also be accompanied on visits to ensure they don't entirely lose contact with family. |
| Napak |
| We have made good progress with our plans for Napak, and I will say more about this in the September circular. |
