Keep a Child Alive

Day 1 - Fiona: Orphaned by War and AIDS

Every patient who walks through our doors at Alive Medical Services is a miracle just waiting to happen.  They touch our hearts when they arrive, broken and fearful of the death they are sure awaits them, and then they become our inspiration as we champion their transformation on ARVs.  Each is an amazing gift made possible through the pure love of KCA and it donors, who give life to thousands whom they have never met.  They want you all to know them through their stories, to see them healthy and alive, and to thank you for loving them when all hope was lost.

For Fiona, a young girl of 9 from the worst part of Kampala’s Namuwongo slums, hope must seem as distant as a dream.  Having lost both her parents to war in the North of Uganda, she and her grandmother struggled to survive, relying on the $1 Grandma earned for an entire day’s work sorting coffee beans in a nearby factory.  There was never enough food, but Grandma always made sure that they there was something to eat to keep them alive. Grandma was under our care at KCA for her medications and KCA still takes care of Fiona’s medical need

Fiona left for school one morning while Grandma remained asleep in the bed they shared.  She thought that Grandma must be too tired to go to work, and later found her still sleeping when she returned home from school.  With no money from Grandma’s work that day to buy food, Fiona lay down beside her in the bed and went to sleep. This went on for 2 days and nights.

Finally, a neighbor asked Fiona about her grandmother.  Why was she not going to work?  And what was Fiona doing for food?  The little girl said “Grandma has been in the bed, sleeping.  She does not wake.”  When the neighbor stepped into the tiny shack where Fiona and her Grandma lived, she found the woman dead in the bed. The room smelled of the body, already decomposing, beside which Fiona had spent the last few nights.  Fiona fell silent. Apart from Grandma, she knew of no other relative.  Without Grandma, there would be no one to love and protect her; she was alone in the world.

Because of KCA and the organization, Hope For Children, Fiona is slowing beginning to see that she is not alone.  She is still heartbroken for her Grandma, but she goes to school with children who, just like her, have no family left to care for them. They all understand each other.  And when she comes to the clinic for her medical care, everyone greets her with smiles and loving embraces for, in Fiona, they see the miracle happening.

Fiona, a KCA grantee and her story is another reason why we do what we do at Keep a Child Alive. Text BUYLIFE to 90999 to give $10 to help us continue these daily inspirational stories of hope, love and strength.

See all of our Daily Inspirations.