Not much to smile about.
Her mom is alive, but doesn’t want her.
Her dad comes and gets her every now and then. But it lasts about a weekend and then he drops her back to her Gogo (grandmother) because he can’t handle her.
Gogo complains about her and verbally abuses her because she is tired of raising a child she didn’t ask to raise.
Our health team has started the process of getting her healthy and onto tuberculosis (TB) treatment and anti-retrovirals as she has both Aids and TB.
We visit her almost weekly and rarely get a smile out of her.
The obstacles in this situation are like mountains. None of the adults in her family are able or willing to take responsibility for her. She has missed clinic appointments and gone weekends without her TB medications, both of which can cause very serious problems in her little life and body.
We are in the process of working with the family to see if there is someone who will truly step up to care properly for Nosipho* or if we will have to have her removed from the family home.
She needs a loving home and someone that she knows cares for her and loves her. We have seen the beginnings of smiles at some of our visits, but they are hard to draw out. Her little life seems very solemn and sullen.
Pray we find a happy ending for this sad little girl.
4 Months Later
Happy ending still not in sight. She has been hospitalized for multi-drug resistant TB since I first wrote about her. She is still not well. Her lungs were badly damaged by the TB. Her dad was in the same hospital, also with MDR TB. Until 2 days ago…. He passed away on Monday night.
We went to visit her on Tuesday and she wasn’t speaking at all. It was work to get any type of response out of her, and we just tried to give comfort and show her love.
Which is why we were all thrilled when Zama got a phone call today. Someone at the hospital had let Nosipho use their phone and she chose to phone Zama! Zama said she was chatting and laughing and interacting so much better than the previous day. What a scary ordeal this little one has had to go through. She has been hospitalized in 2 different hospitals, move from place to place, given medicines she doesn’t understand why she needs, poked, prodded and who knows what else – all without a parent or loved one to walk with her through this stressful event in her little life. I think she doesn’t know who to trust with her little heart, so she holds back, nervous to trust.
We have committed to visiting Nosipho every other week until she is discharged, and assisting the government social workers to find the most suitable home or relatives for her to stay with. Hopefully by the time we write a new newsletter, we will be able to title a story “Happy. Little. Girl”
*name changed for confidentiality.
Bless her. Praying for someone who will live her!
🙁 How very sad for her. In our country we feel sorry for ourselves if the weather is not right, or if we don’t get to go somewhere we had planned to. Shame on us an our sense of entitlement!