The Tentative Numbers from Today

Today  we went to N’gombe, a compound close to our home.  We went with interview questions written by the World Health Organization, and we went in small teams of a child or two, one or two of us, and a Nyanja/Bemba speaker.  Each team went to three homes in an hour and a half (all our kids could take!), and one out of every three homes had at least one child who had a cognitive disability!  ONE IN THREE.  Those numbers are higher than even our highest estimations.  We aren’t sure if these numbers will hold over time, as we go house to house for more days than just today, but if so, the need is even greater than we knew.  Please pray for wisdom for us as we serve these very poor families with very few resources for their children, and very little medical care for them.

We were welcomed more than we ever would have been in the US.  No one in the US welcomes people they don’t know when a knock sounds on your door.  Here, we were told “you are welcome” when we said “odi” which means “knock, knock”, at the fabric hanging in the opening in the cement walls of the homes we went to.  We were invited in, Maggie was talked to, and included in the conversations, and the questions we asked were answered willingly.

We will write more in the weeks to come as we continue to do these surveys through one compound to try to figure out the real numbers, and the real need.  Our hope is that as we find exact numbers, other NGO’s will be able to serve the children that right now have no care, no schooling, no medical services, and stay home all the time.