Dear friends of Nyandengoh!,
We are grateful that the Covid-19 pandemic has left Sierra Leone relatively unaffected with approximately 2400 cases, 74 deaths and very few new cases over the last months. There are still some restrictions in place, but the Nyandengoh! team has continued to minister to the children with disabilities. Recently they asked us to share the following story with you:
Matthew is an eight-year-old boy with microcephaly, a condition we frequently see among the children we work with, and which may be related to pregnant mothers being infected with the Zika virus. Until recently, Matthew lived in a small town where he faced stigma and rejection. Parents would not allow their children to play with him. While Matthew’s mother loved him very much, she received little support from those around her to protect Matthew from the unkindness of the community. Finally his mother decided to move. In the village where she settled, Matthew soon made friends with a boy who has an intellectual disability and is regularly visited by the Nyandengoh! team. The people in his new community have a better understanding of disabilities and Matthew no longer faces loneliness as his new friendship introduced him to many other children who are glad to play with him.
On a sad note, after the death of Mariama (see our last blog), we lost two more precious children. Sattu was less than a year old and was growing up with achondroplasia. Iye was a 3-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who lived too far away for our team to make regular visits. Occasionally her grandmother would bring Iye to Mattru where she received physical therapy evaluations and where the grandmother was encouraged to keep exercising with her. It has not been easy for the team to process three deaths. We are grateful for Mrs. Cathy Toupin, a missionary currently working at the UBC Mattru Hospital, who could spend time with the team studying the Bible on the hope we have in Christ for young children who pass away.
With the home visits increasing and the limitations of the public transportation system, we are grateful for a second motor bike, donated by Hope Universal (www.hopeuniversal.org).
Dave Landis from Landis design Co. in Atmore provided the stickers with the Nyandengoh! logo’s.
Early December we are expecting a visit from our partner organization World Hope International / Enable the children, who will help us screen some of the children on our waiting list with the aim to enroll them in our program for 2021. Please pray for the team as they face a busy month leading up to Christmas and for all of us as we make plans for the new year. Stay tuned for more news about this!
Thank you for your support!