Miss-Delectable
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Africa Science News Service - Milestones on Deaf blindness in Kenya: A success story of a struggling mother
In an interview with Africa Science News Service, Ouko said we still have few numbers of trained teachers who can handle the deafblind children. “We are continuously engaging the ministry of education to incorporate house mothers who are already in deafblind to be teachers”, she said.
Statistics show that 50% of blindness is brought by congenital rubella syndrome, this is a viral illness brought by a togavirus of the genus Rubiviru.
Children usually develop few or no symptoms, but in adults they may experience 1-5 day low grade fever, headache, malaise and conjunctivitis.
When Rubella infection occurs in pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, fatal infection is likely and often causes congenital rubella syndrome (CRS)resulting in abortion, miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects.
It has been found that up to 20% of the infants born to mothers infected during pregnancy have CRS. The most common congenital defects are cataracts, heart disease, sensori-neural deafness and mental retardation.
Jane has lived through it all. She has a daughter Louise Otieno whose health has been a problem to the family. Unfortunately no one knew what the problem was.
She decided to go public in seeking help and not to hide as other parents do in order not to suffer stigma.
Louise, who is sixteen years old, has sight and hearing problem, meaning she can’t hear at all but she can see partially when she put an object very close to her eye, defining her deaf-blindness.
Jane has passed through much that it has become routine to her. She encourages other parents to support their children in similar conditions.
In bringing up her daughter Louise, born under weight at birth (she had weight of 1.9kg), Jane faced rejection, hatred, difficulty in finance so that she could not support her as well as attend to her work as a teacher.
People even told her she has been bewitched and she should seek a witch doctor’s advice.
But she took heart and struggled until the people who rejected her now befriend her because she made it.
When she first started school she was very withdrawn and exhibited challenging behavior.
She had morbidity problem and was not able to wash and feed herself or to communicate with her family, but when she was taken to a deaf-blind school at Kilimani integrated school, Nairobi, she was assessed by a specialist, a thing that turned things for Louise.
Today, Louise even walks by herself, wash herself and utensils, and in school she even do bead-making which is then sold by the school for income generating activities by people with disability in the school.
Louise’s transformation has been extreme and her family life has improved. Her mother is so grateful.
In an interview with Africa Science News Service, Ouko said we still have few numbers of trained teachers who can handle the deafblind children. “We are continuously engaging the ministry of education to incorporate house mothers who are already in deafblind to be teachers”, she said.
Statistics show that 50% of blindness is brought by congenital rubella syndrome, this is a viral illness brought by a togavirus of the genus Rubiviru.
Children usually develop few or no symptoms, but in adults they may experience 1-5 day low grade fever, headache, malaise and conjunctivitis.
When Rubella infection occurs in pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, fatal infection is likely and often causes congenital rubella syndrome (CRS)resulting in abortion, miscarriages, stillbirths and severe birth defects.
It has been found that up to 20% of the infants born to mothers infected during pregnancy have CRS. The most common congenital defects are cataracts, heart disease, sensori-neural deafness and mental retardation.
Jane has lived through it all. She has a daughter Louise Otieno whose health has been a problem to the family. Unfortunately no one knew what the problem was.
She decided to go public in seeking help and not to hide as other parents do in order not to suffer stigma.
Louise, who is sixteen years old, has sight and hearing problem, meaning she can’t hear at all but she can see partially when she put an object very close to her eye, defining her deaf-blindness.
Jane has passed through much that it has become routine to her. She encourages other parents to support their children in similar conditions.
In bringing up her daughter Louise, born under weight at birth (she had weight of 1.9kg), Jane faced rejection, hatred, difficulty in finance so that she could not support her as well as attend to her work as a teacher.
People even told her she has been bewitched and she should seek a witch doctor’s advice.
But she took heart and struggled until the people who rejected her now befriend her because she made it.
When she first started school she was very withdrawn and exhibited challenging behavior.
She had morbidity problem and was not able to wash and feed herself or to communicate with her family, but when she was taken to a deaf-blind school at Kilimani integrated school, Nairobi, she was assessed by a specialist, a thing that turned things for Louise.
Today, Louise even walks by herself, wash herself and utensils, and in school she even do bead-making which is then sold by the school for income generating activities by people with disability in the school.
Louise’s transformation has been extreme and her family life has improved. Her mother is so grateful.