Often, I find myself describing our work as getting children to the start line – bringing them to the same position as a child without a disability, so that the future opens up from a fairer place.
What does that actually mean though?
There’s the medical aspect: lack of awareness, finances, and access mean a child might not have received care, even if their condition is treatable.
There’s education: a physical disability might hold a child back from being able to walk to school, or the bullying might be bad enough that they stop attending.
Our patients often come from backgrounds of scarcity where providing enough food for growing bodies can be tough – not to mention babies born with a cleft lip or palate who struggle to breastfeed.
In many communities, stigma holds that a child with a disability is a curse, or punishment from God, often excluding them from love, acceptance, and a sense of worth.
So much of our work is filling in these gaps that punctuate the lives of the children we serve.
The most obvious way we do this is medically: surgery, recovery and rehabilitation… but while that’s going on, children spend an average of three months at Kafika House – and those days are densely packed with goodness.
I’ve realised we don’t really spell out what that goodness is, because much of it is (to borrow an expression from my daughters) just how we roll.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be unpacking the alchemy of transformation: how we turn your gifts into holistic healing, into education and inspiration, into nourishment, safety, love – and the starting point for a brighter future.
Thanks for being here — it means the world.
With love,
Sarah