Agency opens daycare centre for nodding kids
Gulu District vice chairperson Isaac Newton Ojok helps a boy suffering from nodding disease to plant a tree at the newly-built day care centre in Aromo Wanglobo, Odek Sub-county on Friday. BY Moses Akena
What you need to know:
The government earlier established three research, control and feeding centres for the children affected by the disease in Pader, Kitgum and Lamwo districts.
Gulu
A daycare centre meant for monitoring, education and research on the nodding syndrome has been opened in Aromo Wanglobo Parish, Odek Sub-County in Gulu District. The centre built by Gulu Hope, a non-governmental organisation based in the district, comes with a classroom, rest beds and medication wing.
“That way, we can help do some research that will open the way which can get a cure for the nodding syndrome,” Professor Sallie Baynton, the founder of Gulu Hope organisation, said at the weekend.
The centre will help to educate and take care of many of the children who have since dropped out of school due to the nodding syndrome.
For instance, in Aromo Wanglobo Primary School, of the 532 pupils that enrolled at the school, 165 of them have been diagnosed with the syndrome, with 12 deaths and 73 drop outs registered in about one year.
The head teacher, Mr Santo Okello, said the disease is a big burden. “It’s very difficult to take care of the nodding syndrome victims and worse still, it has brought a lot of fear to both the teachers and the pupils,” he said.
Many parents in the nodding syndrome inflicted areas have complained of lack of time to attend to their economic activities, including gardens, because they have to attend to the sick children.
The centre will, therefore, allow residents engage in other activities as children are away for most of the days.
Request
District leaders, who officiated at the launch of the facility at the weekend, called on parents to embrace the centre’s initiative as attempts to find out the cause of the disease continue.
The district health educator, Mr Celestino Ojok, urged parents to desist from the practice of sending their children to traditional herbalists. “We hear that the practice [visiting herbalists] is very common here but we urge you to be patient because with proper medication, the disease can be managed,” he said.
The syndrome, whose cause, cure, and mode of transmission, is yet to be determined, has affected nearly 5,000 children in Kitgum, Pader, Lamwo, Gulu, Oyam and Lira districts with an estimated 300 deaths.
