Girl, 11, can’t walk and is neglected by parents

Eleven-year-old Jennifer Angucia has never walked in her life. She lies down from morning to night in her Orivu B village in Terego County unless a Good Samaritan comes and makes her sit on the lap. Due to her condition, she was abandoned at an early stage and looked at as an outcast.

Angucia was locked in a collapsing kitchen with a leaking roof and beaten by the rain. She has neither attended school nor church and only once did she visit a health centre.

Whenever Angucia falls sick, she is left at the mercy of God. The parents who neglected her bathe her once a week but, she lacks clothing, bedding and other basic necessities.

A loner
Only the children in the neighbourhood or Good Samaritans come to play with her.

When the Daily Monitor found her in the village, she lifted her eyes and said, “Mum, welcome the visitors. But whatever things they have brought for me are mine and you (parents) should not take them away.

“And I want to go to school because other children are studying,” she added.

While she suffers, her siblings are catered for in a fairly constructed house while she is left sleeping, defecating and urinating on the mat which she sleeps on in a dilapidated kitchen.

The plight of Angucia drew the attention of the community members.

The community members formed a committee to establish some support for the girl. This prompted the community to take the girl to Obofi Health Centre II on July 23 where the medical assistant, Mr Amos Drani, examined her.

The girl is suffering from Hydrocephalus and her family members are financially handicapped. The mother, Ms Bianca Alezo, 30, said she does not have money since she sells some food items at the roadside.

“She is my first born but it is true it has been difficult to feed her because I also do casual labour in people’s gardens,” she said.

Suffering from hydrocephalus
The medical officer for Arua Municipality, Dr Paul Onzubo, told the Daily Monitor that hydrocephalus is a condition that causes fluid inside the head to build up, causing pressure to increase and the skull to expand to a larger than normal size. It can also cause convulsions, tunnel vision, mental disability or death.

“But if re-absorption fails, you will either have too much of the fluid in the mid-brain or blockage for the flow and this causes the enlargement of the skull, especially when the fluid accumulates in the middle of the brain,” he added.

“So at childhood, if this kind of blockage occurs or there is accumulation of the fluid in the brain cavity, the result is that the bone gives way and the skull continues to expand. That is why the head of such a child becomes heavy and the child may not be able to sit, walk or stand up,” he added.

Treatable sickness
Mr Geoffrey Dramani, the programme assistant for African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), said they have donated sweaters and a mattress with a leather cover since she defecates and urinates where she lays.