Kasese is one of the Districts in Uganda with the highest burden of stunting amongst children under five years and is ranked 3rd in Uganda and first in the Rwenzori sub Region with the highest prevalence of child marriages and teenage pregnancies (GoU, 2022) (UNFPA, 2021) a situation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic presenting a double burden.
To confirm this, during the past weeks social media was awash with photos of Gilbert a 5 year old boy that was suffering severe malnutrition as a result of being neglected by the parents. He was left at the mercy of his grand parents who also lived in severe poverty and so Gilbert seemed to have been left at the mercy of his creator. During a field work by one of the community volunteers, she came across the home where Gilbert was lying naked on the ground and immediately alerted different concerned leaders. Gilbert was rescued and transferred to hospital for further management.
Having learnt about this situation, GEDA Uganda’s management reached out to the Community Development Officer of Maliba sub county and the volunteer that discovered the child to ascertain the situation but also finding out how the institution would help. The CDO explained that the child needed a lot of support given the family background and asked different partners to consider supporting this child.
GEDA staff then went to St. Paul’s Hospital to check out the condition of the child. We met Dr. Karabyo Samson, the Medical Director of St. Paul’s Hospital, to further understand how Gilbert can be meaningfully assisted to recover. According to Dr. Karabyo, he said that due to severe malnutrition, Gilbert could be suffering from other underlying medical conditions. He said his treatment was going to take some time, with hope to stabilize the boy’s condition. He further said that foremost support that is needed would be social support that included, nutritious foods, drinks, soap and other sanitary items among others.
During this same visit GEDA Uganda discovered a number of other malnourished Children that were on the ward that needed social support as well which GEDA provided as well.
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