Children with a disability in Africa not only face many difficulties buta lot of stigma as well. Spring of Hope works with these children and their families to help them understand the disability (or disabilities) and to helpthe child achieve his or her full potential while changing the negative attitude of the surrounding community to a more positive one. Spring of Hope works with children who have disabilities ranging from deafness, blindness,epilepsy, learning disabilities, mental disabilities, and the list goes on.

 My experience with Spring of Hope has been extremely heart-wrenching. Knowing ahead of time that I would be working with children with disabilities, I thought I had prepared myself mentally and emotionally. However, little did I know just how desperate the need really wasto reach out to these children and their families! I have witnessed children who were malnourished and neglected by their families because of their disabilities while their siblings were well-fed and well-dressed. I witnessedthe death of a malnourished child because all the major hospitals rejected her admittance once they learned she had cerebral palsy.

During some of the home visits to the children and their families, I have saw the neighbors taunting and threatening a child with a mental disability to the point where his mother was so discouraged that she even thought of ending the child’s life as well as her own.

Spring of Hope brings support and encouragement for these children with disabilities and their families;especially to the mothers because when a child is born with a disability, it is thought to be the mother’s fault. As a ministry, we focus on educating the parents who neglected their children with disabilities and try to help the neighbors understand that a disability is not necessary an inability.

By Janny