What's Been Happening
70% Burns, 2 Skin grafts and recovering
 The girl who received burns to 70% of her body has been making a great recovery since the last newsletter.
The last report we gave was after the girl’s first skin graft. Since then, she has had a second procedure - skin was taken from her arms and legs and grafted onto her front which was the worst affected area. We continued to visit her regularly and it was pleasing to see the smile come back to her face, something that had been missing for quite a while. The doctors and nurses at KLE Hospital were fantastic and without them, she would not have survived. In the weeks following the skin grafts, doctors kept her clean and paid great attention to the wounds and the 3 large bed sores that she had acquired from the first hospital.
Two weeks ago, we got the exciting news that she was ready to be discharged. All her previous infections had been controlled and the skin grafts and donor sites were also healing well. When we went to visit her and finalise the discharge procedure, she had been out of bed doing exercises to make her strong and to prevent contracture which is common in severe burn cases. She had a beaming smile on her face but still looked very weak. Having been immobile for two and a half months, her muscles had wasted away and she also lost much of her weight – on 22nd October when she was discharged, she weighed only 25 kgs.
We were worried about the four hour drive back to Goa on the very bumpy roads (which have got progressively worse during the last 2 months). She was so glad to be out of hospital that, accompanied by her mother and brother, she didn't complain once throughout the long journey.
At a check-up at Vrundavan hospital, the doctors agreed she still had a long way to go but there was no reason for her to be readmitted to hospital; the consensus among all the doctors was that she needs daily activity/exercise to help prevent contracture, a good healthy diet to give her the best chance of recovery and her wounds need to be medicated, cleaned and dressed every day to keep infection at bay.
Since her return she has been coming to 'The Mango House' every day for a shower, food, exercise and treatment to her wounds. The improvement has been amazing. Volunteers and staff were shocked by her appearance at first but seeing her huge smile has been a tremendous boost for us all. Eva (a student social worker from Germany) has taken charge due to her experience as a children's nurse. Clean clothes and sheets are given every day to decrease the chances of infection. There is still a long way to go and possibly further skin grafts and treatment but we feel that she is well on the way to recovery.
Thank you all who donated to help with her treatment via the Medical Fund (see CAF Website)
More Burns
 Another child has also suffered badly with burns recently. A bad burn on her ankle from a motorbike exhaust was exacerbated when boiling water was spilt down her leg at home, giving her two large heat blisters (one about 6 inches long, the other 4 inches long) which subsequently burst . She is also coming every day to 'The Mango House' for treatment.
Leprosy
It’s been nearly a year since one of the children was diagnosed with leprosy; since then a mother has also been diagnosed. Unfortunately the mother had a severe reaction to the leprosy medicine which brought out large lesions on her skin. She had seen a few local doctors, none of whom helped so we took her to see Dr Uma, the skin specialist, who helps our children. She recommended that she be admitted into the Goa Medical College to sort out the problems with her medicine and have her children checked over.
A month later and we are happy to say that the reaction to the medicine has subsided and she is looking and feeling so much better. We will continue to keep an eye on the other children. Leprosy is one of the least contagious skin conditions so hopefully we have caught this early and seen the last of it. We would like to thank GMC, Asilo and Dr Uma for their care and treatment of all the cases they've helped us with.
Broken Arm
 One of the children was playing at the slum when he fell and landed awkwardly, resulting in him breaking both the bones in his lower arm. X-rays showed that it was a severe break that required an operation but unfortunately the mother refused to stay in hospital, instead visiting a local 'witch' doctor the next day. Many of the parents think that these doctors are better because they don't have to wait too long to see them and they give pills or creams without a fuss. Unfortunately in this case the doctor gave the child some cream to rub on his arm to repair the broken bones. It took a few days before we could convince the mother to go back to hospital for treatment. As the break was so bad, he needed an operation to screw two metal plates to his bones. He has improved greatly and has returned to the house where he joins in with all the activities. The wounds have healed completely and we are just waiting for a final check from the doctor.
Parents Don't Always Know Best
In the last couple of months, we have had a 3 months old baby girl diagnosed with pneumonia and possible TB. We encourage the parents to care for the children and take them to hospital; it can be a difficult process but we usually convince them that it's the best solution. Unfortunately sometimes the parents aren't totally happy as this means that they have to stay in hospital with the child which can ruin their day. In this case, after a lot of persuasion, the mother and baby were admitted. A private paediatrician and doctors in the government hospital tried to persuade the family to keep the baby in for at least a week so that infections could be treated. Unfortunately the family was not willing to stay with the baby, even though we were providing food, covering the medical costs and even helping them with transport. After the first night the mother discharged the baby against doctors’ advice and took her home. We followed this up the next day only to be told that 'they didn’t care if the baby died'.... We do not have the authority to take the baby away from them so we had to put the case forward to the child welfare committee which holds weekly sessions. We hope that with their help we can ensure that the baby is treated.
Holidays
It’s the season of festivals and holidays. Since the last newsletter, we have been invited to Pooja by one of the slums, some of the Muslim families have invited us for Eid and then there was Ganesh and most recently Diwali. The children are currently on 3 weeks holiday for Diwali and are at 'The Mango House' all day. Some have returned to their village for the festivals and others have been helping to build monsters. As it's the holidays, we have had a couple of trips while we've had the time. We visited a park and then the Science Museum in Panjim where the children found all the experiments fascinating, watched arcs of light between metal poles, saw how the eye reacts when a light gets brighter and lots more. The floating ball and the circus mirrors were amongst the favourites. We also managed to get the children to the beach for a run around and a bit of fun. It was nice to see the children playing as they have all worked so hard at school during the last few months. The next big celebration will be Christmas. Hopefully we will be given enough presents to make it a memorable one this year.
Dental Checkups
Shermina and Abby were responsible for taking several of the children for dental checkups recently. We would like to thank Dr Toshepu’s dental practice in Calangute (http://www.goadentalclinic.com), which has continued to give us free dental work and checkups. The children have been a few times recently, the first time just for a check-up and then the second time for some fillings and extractions. The youngest child (4 years) was very brave and showed some of the older ones how to behave. Thank you again to all those who helped.
A Common Problem
It is sad that some things are recurring problems. Last month we got a knock on the door late in the evening: one of the fathers from the slum had beaten up his wife and she came to us for help. Physical abuse is very common in the slum environment, sometimes affecting the children, sometimes the wives and occasionally the fathers. Most of the cases are alcohol based and many are shrugged off as part of life but we are here to help the children so we often step in. On occasions, we have taken abusive parents to the police or contacted the child welfare committee on their behalf.
Wherever possible, we try to defuse the situation by talking to the families or keeping them apart long enough for the tension to wind down or else the situation escalates. We have seen some horrible things - one child having her arms put into boiling curry and another boy’s hand slit open by drunken parents. What makes life even worse is that sometimes these things happen when the parents are sober.
Hopefully by the time the children we are helping become old enough to start their own families, the work we have done with them will bring dividends so that, despite experiencing and witnessing some bad parenting themselves, they will be equipped to raise their children in a positive and non violent way.
Other Medical
The medical side of the charity always keeps us busy. In the last month, one of the children developed a blue and and purple arm which became very swollen and looked quite severe. We initially thought it was chicken pox. Tests proved negative and after the local application of some medicine, the arm is back to normal. Two more girls developed scabies & boils on their arms. There has also been a bout of conjunctivitis which is very painful. About 10 of the children had sore eyes; thankfully it's easy to treat but unfortunately just as easy to spread. In the last couple of days we have had yet another case of Malaria. Again from the same family. They have decided to move their house in the hope this will reduce the risk of another case.
Visited Other Charities and Gave Donations
We are very lucky with the number of donations we receive and nothing is ever wasted. If we have enough for the house, then we always either give out the surplus in the slums or help other smaller charities that might struggle otherwise. In the last couple of months, we have visited 4 other small charities and helped in one way or another, by giving clothes, soaps, toothpaste, toys, books and crayons. We like to be able to help the smaller organisations who are doing good work in the field. All of this is only possible through the kindness of our supporters...
Volunteers
We now have a whole new team of volunteers; Abby, Theresa, Eva and Jeroen all made it into last month’s newsletter but a few more have come on board since so a big welcome to Cherry, Christine, Kate, Louise, Lucy and Matt. They are all settling in well and some have already been talking about adoption… (It's not an option really - they just like to think it is!) The volunteers are always amazed with the effect the children have on their lives and many get very tearful before they leave.
Last month, we said goodbye to Julia and Kate. We would like to thank them for all their help and hope to see them soon when they return to Goa. |
Giving Out and Parties
Activities at the House
A Day Out
The Needs List
We would like to say a big thank you to 'The Marriot' hotel in Panjim. Marlene was kind enough to visit us last week and generously brought a large chocolate birthday cake for the monthly birthday party. There was plenty for all the children and staff. One of our volunteers is staying at 'The Marriott' so we hope their staff wil get chance to visit again in the future. 
We would like to thank everybody who has helped to raise funds and awareness over the last two months. It is becoming increasingly difficult to write details about all the donations we receive due to the amount of work involved. If you are kind enough to arrange an event for Children Walking Tall and would like your event to be included in the newsletter, then please write a small paragraph about how the event went and who was involved. The newsletters are very time consuming to put together so this would be a great help to us and allow more time to be spent helping the children. 
It's the middle of November so only just over a month left to go before we put on our furry antlers, the big red suit and head off into the boiling sun to give out presents to the children in the slums. Last year we managed to give out in total around 1200 wrapped Christmas presents over four days and then another 300 in January (Santa was a little late). If you are wanting to bring some Christmas present out and are here before the 20th of December then we would appreciate any small toys, toy cars, small dolls, skipping ropes, balls etc are great. Balloons and sweets would also be welcomed. 
