A difficult day

Today was quite emotionally challenging; we visited the Home of Hope - a home for disabled children.

In Uganda, disabled people are seen as an embarassment and worthless and are often tied up in the yard and just left. The lady that runs this home, Edith, has a disabled son. Her family and friends wanted nothing to do with her when she didn't disregard Derek. She said that since then, God has put a burden on her heart, a passion to look after disabled children, mentally and physically.

She feels it is important to make them feel loved and worth something in the community and so built this home and now has staff to help her run it. I think there's about 60 children there.

It was very hard walking in the building and continuing to smile when all I could see was children sat or lying down on the concrete floor. Some crawling or shuffling about, many crying or making loud noises, one had urinated on the floor. The carers were great but it broke my heart to think these kids had families who had just abandoned them. In another room was babies lying on a mattress, some were actually aged 7 but looked no older than 3 or 4.

There was a room for children to exercise their muscles so that they were not locked in the future. A man was making a young girl sit up and lean against a cushion. She was crying so loud for about 20 minutes as she was in so much pain and she was only comfortable in a lying down position. I sat and held her hands whilst sh sat and she could not stop crying.

We took some of the kids for a walk in wheelchairs and they loved it. Some of them cant use their limbs properly but they are so cheeky and giggly and loved getting pushed fast along the path. Back at the home we put some of the younger kids on the trampoline and they absolutely love it because it's the one place where their limbs don't need to be effective. They loved being bounced and it was just lovely to see them smiling.

One boy, Jeffery, who likes to run around and shout, actually pushed one of the wheelchairs. He is very hyper and despite hitting me in the face once, he was lovely and just wanted to cuddle everyone. Being here really opened my eyes to the people right at the bottom of society and I am glad God has put me here to help care for them. Even if you have no skills or talents, we can all give time and love and that's all they need, so I look forward to spending Tuesdays here! 

The video below shoes some of the kids I was with: