A fever that left Mbejja crippled

Zaitun Mbejja, 20, was born a normal child but ended up becoming a cripple.
At six years, Mbejja was put down by a severe bout of malaria. She was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital.

Cerebral palsy affects movement and posture and the victim suffers visual, hearing or speech and mental impairments. They also develop epilepsy.

Unable to fend for a sick child, Mbejja’s parents handed her to a caretaker but she was later abandoned at Auntie Louise School for Children with Disabilities in Buwunga Sub-county, Masaka District.
“We have stayed with her for six years and for all this period, she has been showing signs of love for studying a qualities of a good leader,” Edward Bahane Bulando, an administrator at Auntie Louise School, said.

Mbejja, who moves in a wheel chair, dreams of becoming a teacher one day and she has great hope she will realise her dream.

“I have challenges but I believe I will get there,” she says.
Currently, she is the school’s sanitary prefect and her capabilities, her teachers say, are undeniable.

“She is a good supervisor. Fortunately many of her colleagues listen to her because they respect her,” says Mr Bahane, who doubles as a teacher at the school.
Mbejja, who looks quite small for her age, cannot walk or crawl and if left in the rain, it will shower on her unless she is assisted.

Her left hand is completely paralysed and does everything else such as writing, eating among other activities with her right hand.

She has great passion for children with hearing impairment and she is struggling to learn sign language in order to communicate with them.

“That language is difficult but I have started grasping a few things and I will master it one day,” she says.

But from physical observation, Mbejja seems to struggle while writing resulting from the over stretched muscles.

In a meeting at her school, Bahane said medical reports suggest there is a possibility that some of her deformities can be corrected through a professional and expert operation.
“That operation requires a lot of money which our school cannot raise to see her in a better condition,” he says, adding that even basic requirements needed for her upkeep such as wheel chairs are expensive.

Mbejja was once examined at CORSU, a private clinic on Entebbe Road, and they indicated that an operation would be painful.

However, another private clinic in Kampala estimated that Mbejja’s deformities would be corrected through a surgery that would cost about Shs25m.

To help
To help. To correct Zaitun Mbejja’s deformity you can reach Edward Bahane Bulando, an administrator at Auntie Louise School for Children with Disabilities on 0704394805.