Mwape Malubeni Learning to nuture
Mwape Malubeni Learning to nuture
This little 11-year-old girl
arrived to Vima Lupwa home extremely malnourished and neglected.
Mwape came to us through the social-welfare office after
it was discovered by a local clinic that she was being sexually abused by her
father and members of her community. When just 3 months old she was
diagnosed with Cerebral Malaria which caused a mental handicap.
Mwape also suffers from epilepsy. Since she
had seizures the men in her community thought she was mentally handicapped and
took advantage of her. She has never had healthy interactions with people.
It is difficult to get any information from her because she was never
taught that rape was wrong, but rather that it was part of everyday life. So far
she has told us about 4 different men that would take her into the forest to
rape her. The way she describes it is very violent.
More stories are coming as
she feels safer in our home. She is making improvements every day:
we were able to put her on medicine for her seizures, from which she was
suffering up to three times a day. They
have now decreased to about once or twice a week, a major improvement indeed!
We were concerned after hearing from her village
that Mwape had cerebral malaria as a child. We had her recently examined by a
medical profession and she was diagnosed mentally handicapped. There is lots of
hope for Mwape now that she is in our care and will receive the best
opportunities we can find for her. A local teacher has been hired to come daily
and teach her life skills and some academics. She is actively working on her
ABCs and counting.
Never having gone to school before, she is learning
the daily obligation of washing, getting dressed and staying focused in her
lessons. Her laugh is contagious and
keeps all the kids and teacher consistently entertained. She participates in the
nightly routine of singing and clapping songs while dancing around the room with
the other children. She has so much
joy and hope.