Meeting the Street Children

After the Sunday morning service we went with Felicia to their feeding program for street children in one of the “slums” of Accra. She took us down one of the streets to meet some of the disabled adults that also live on the streets. We met an elderly woman who was paralyzed and appeared to have cataracts. She said her name was Lizzy and said that her legs became paralyzed after she received a jab. She was very friendly and allowed us to take her picture. Then we walked down the street and had a conversation with two men. One of them was very frustrated because he said that people were always coming by to see him and promised to do things to help him and he never saw anything from it. We explained why were in Ghana, to learn about disability in Ghana and what we might be able to do on future trips. Partially because Felicia was with us and has done things, like the feeding program we were heading to, for the children and partially because we were not promising to do anything and expressed understanding about his frustration with his situation, he did talk to us. Like the woman, Lizzy, he said he was given a jab which lead to his paralysis. We all thought this was interesting and had trouble figuring out why people thought immunizations caused paralysis. Then we thought what if it was a polio vaccine, what if they were giving live vaccine and some people actually got polio from it… that is a theory that makes more sense to me.

Then we headed to the feeding program. When we walked through the entry we were instantly swarmed with children who were grabbing at our clothing and pulling on our arms. There were so many, and they were energetic and excited to see us. I was surprised, for some reason I expected the street children to be different. They were friendly and of all ages. A girl was brought to Stacey’s attention. She had recently suffered a stroke and was having problems with her left arm and leg. Stacey took her into our van to try to get some privacy. She evaluated her strength and range of motion on her affected and unaffected sides. Then showed her how to stretch her arm, some exercises she could do on her own to make it stronger, and how she could use it to help her do things. This particular girl made quite an impact on me. She stayed with me for the rest of the time we were there. At one point, her older brother asked me if I was Christian when I said yes he asked me to take her home with me. I said that I wish I could but that isn't possible. She didn’t speak any English but it is her face, of all the children we met in Ghana that I can’t get out of my head. I wish there was more we could have done for her.

Within a few minutes of arriving at the feeding program a teenage girl came up to me and asked me if I would hold her brother. He wasn’t moving, I was worried he was sick. I asked her, she laughed and said he was sleeping but her arms were hurting. I held him for a while…sleeping babies get heavy fast. When the children were moving to the line for food I handed him back to her. I was glad I handed him back before he woke up because when he did he screamed at the site of the white people. His sister thought that was hilarious and kept bringing him close to us. His eyes would get so big you could see the white all the way around his pretty brown eyes. This girl decided she was going to teach me some of their clapping games… all I have to say is I am way to slow for those games but at least it gave them a good laugh. Below are pictures of some of the children with Felicia’s daughter playing a dancing game.