Kids’ Doc in Jos

This morning I gave a talk to parents at Open Doors Special Education Centre here in Jos. The director, Dr. Joanne Umolu, had stopped me a few weeks ago after church and asked if I could come. She said the parents had so many questions about why their children were disabled, and that some were spending lots of money on so-called cures.

When we arrived a few minutes after the starting time of 10:00 there were only five parents, but by the end at 12:15 there were around 50, in a school which has 67 children. So the interest was certainly there. Joanne had sent me parents’ questions ahead of time so I could address them.

I started with an overview of how the nervous system works, how the brain can be damaged, and what results from the damage. The emphasis was on the complexity of the brain and how “simple” skills like feeding oneself are actually very complicated and can be disrupted by neurologic problems at many levels.

Many of the parents are vulnerable to scams, fake cures, and even well-intentioned but useless remedies, so we talked a bit about what is realistic and what is not. We had time to talk about spiritual healing, the way God uses our weaknesses as well as strengths, and that God values us not for how much we can do but for who we are. I shared with them about our own experiences with Luke, and about our SIM dentist here and his wife who have a teenage daughter who is very severely brain damaged but have lovingly cared for her all this time.

Some of the best moments were when a young woman named Uche spoke up. She herself has cerebral palsy and her speech is a little hard to understand. She told how she used to be isolated, how people would “run away” from her because they were scared. But by being friendly and outgoing, by going out into the community and visiting people, she has helped reduce the stigma not only for herself but for others. She happily thanked God for the healing he had performed in her physically as well, gradual improvement over time, but told us that God is glorified in our weakness as well as in our strength. What a woman, and what an encouragement to all of us in the room!

The need in this area is huge. If you have a disabled or special child, or have worked with them, or are disabled yourself, imagine living somewhere with virtually no access to specialized medical care and little in the way of special education. Parents are desperate to help their children but the resources are just not available for most. Maybe you have skills that could help. If so, consider spending some time somewhere like Nigeria helping these children. Even if you think you don’t have the skills or can’t go, you could get in touch with Open Doors (director@opendoorsnigeria.org) or similar schools and see what the needs are and how you could help. And if you’re a Nigerian … consider it your duty to do at least something for your nephews and nieces.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2005 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Mike's jottings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.