Polio sufferer

This child is really someone special. Geraldine found her in a government orphanage in the section for mentally and physically disabled children and her eyes literally bored into her, willing her to pick her out of the other sadly seriously multiply handicapped children. A closer inspection revealed that she was only suffering from polio and was unable to walk. She was more than mentally normal and we were very excited at the prospect of being able to have her transferred to the Foundation. With help from the Ministry of Social Affairs she was with us in less than a month.

She said she remembers lots of fighting in her province before her mother travelled to Phnom Penh to put her in the orphanage. She got a far-away look in her eyes and said, "I have a lot of brothers and sisters and I am a lot of trouble to take care of, so my mother brought me here. It's not my mother's fault," she said quite defiantly. What a sad world we live in when an 8-year-old crippled child has to apologise for her mother…..

She screamed blue murder when she first arrived and saw there was no ceiling fan in the dormitory like she had in the hospital! But within a day or two she was mixing with the other children and whirling round in her wheelchair terrorizing 14-year-old boys! There is very little she can't do for herself. She is fiercely independent and loves attending the village school.

We were able to raise funds to send her to Australia for a spinal fusion operation to correct her scoliosis and this has made a huge difference to how she looks and feels about herself. She is now studying computers and knows she can get a good job, disabled or not!