Lugazi, Africa; HELP-International- Jessica Stone "I Love the Broken Ones"

I started my internship and trip to Africa with HELP-International thinking that I would be helping many people and teaching them the information they would need to fight their poverty.  However, that was not the case.  I have been taught more by the people than they have been taught by me.

Carrying rocks from the mountain to build Seya School

I’ll be honest; living in Lugazi was no piece of cake.  We lived in Africa, and we lived like Africans.  A lot of Ugandans have nothing, but at the same time, have everything.  They don’t need cars, fancy houses, or a lot of income to be happy.  They are thankful for everything that they have, even though it is not much.

This summer has been full of amazing experiences and beautiful people that I will never forget.  I was the project lead for two projects in Lugazi, Uganda: The Children with Disabilities Project, and the Eye and Dental Camp Project.  Being the project lead for these projects I learned so much and came to love so many people.

I grew to love the Children with Disabilities project.  At the beginning of the summer our goal was to construct different devices for the children that would fit their needs.  This was a good idea, but during the summer we realized that this wasn’t exactly making the project sustainable.  We kept asking ourselves, “How are we going to keep this program sustainable?  How will it continue through the rest of the year while HELP is out of the country?  And how can we make it so next year will be able to pick up this project and run with it right from the first week?”

We made a therapeutic chair for this boy, Sam.

That is when we decided to switch our focus from the children to the parents.  We were still working on helping the children individually, but we decided to focus on the parents about their child’s disability.  No matter how much we help the children this summer; if the parents don’t know about their child’s disability and if they don’t know what they can do to improve their life, what is the use of just helping the child?  We need to educate the parents!  Once the parents are educated, hopefully they will have the desire to help their child on their own without help from HELP volunteers in the future.  We were hoping that by educating the parents, it will make it so they will continue to help their child while we are gone.  Then next year, volunteers can work on helping more families, present the information to the parents, and soon start a support group within the community for all the parents who have a child with disabilities.

After presenting the information to Joel's parents on Cerebral Palsy

After presenting the information to Noel's mother about Down syndrome.

I have come to love these children so much.  I know this is why I came to Uganda – to help these children experience more joy in their lives despite having a disability.  I have made a life decision while being here.  I am still planning on majoring in Exercise Science so I can be a Physical Therapist, but I am going to specialize in working with children with disabilities as a Physical Therapist.   I have found my passion as I have worked alongside Moses (a local Physical Therapist who works with children with disabilities) and as I have gotten to know and love these children over the past couple of months.

Partnering with Moses, we were able to get Daphine a prosthetic hand,

which she now is learning to use to help her with various jobs, like cutting potatoes.

Being able to do the Eye and Dental Campaigns have been a great experience as well.

Extracting teeth at the Dental Camp.

The Eye camp we held in Mbale was very neat.  Those people had gone years without being able to see.  Whether it was from cataracts, presbyopia, or whatever may be wrong.  It was amazing to see their gratitude.  It was like instant rewards.  Their smiles are definitely genuine.  I could ask for no greater a reward.

This man had cataracts in both eyes.

These two ladies both received glasses and were very grateful for them!

Cataract surgeries were performed at this eye camp

I left Uganda August 8th.  I wish I could have all the time in the world to stay there and help those people.  There is so much that can be done!  Uganda will always have a special place in my heart.  The friends who I have made will always be dear friends.  I will never forget them.  I love them so much.  They have nothing, yet have so much.  It has been a very humbling and great experience.  I will miss this wonderful and beautiful place so much and I hope I will be able to return one day.

Here is a movie I made for my Children with Disabilities Project.  Hope you enjoy it. :)

I have come to love these children so much. I hope through this video that you can come to know and love them as I have.

If you want to read more about what I did in Uganda, visit my blog: http://myadventureinlugazi.blogspot.com/
or for information about the internship visit http://help-international.org/