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Day 16

Four tablets for a child with disabilities in Nicaragua

Let me live a life without fear! Let me live a life without fear!

Four tablets for a child with disabilities in Nicaragua
Day 16
Living with a disability in Nicaragua

"No day begins for me without fear, I don't get through a bus ride without fear - of the moment when my boy is seized by another seizure." With each of these seizures, a small part of Carlito's brain is destroyed. This is what is troubling his mother, Johana Baltodano, in particular. Because her 14-year-old son Carlito is losing the ability to recognize his mother more and more every day. She is afraid that she will soon be a stranger to her son, who is somehow still small. The doctor has prescribed him tablets to prevent the life-threatening seizures. But Johana has not dared to go to the pharmacy. She could never afford the tablets. Carlito was born healthy. Then, at the age of 8 months, he was shaken by a violent seizure, but the hospital was too far away to treat him immediately. The result of delayed medical treatment: infantile cerebral palsy, a lifelong disability.

Living with a disability in Nicaragua
need
Medical care for children with disabilities in San Rafael del Sur, Nicaragua.
activity
Financing important medicines and vital operations for children with disabilities.
Measurable performance
Number of children with disabilities who were able to take their medication. Plus the number of operations financed.
Result
Improvement of the health of children, faster progress in physiotherapy, enabling them to attend school despite disabilities.
Systemically relevant impact
Improving health during children’s growth phase for a healthy and more independent life in adulthood.
background

What happened to the boy Carlito is not uncommon in Nicaragua: around 10.3% of the population lives with a disability (ENDIS, 2003), compared to 9.4% in Germany (Federal Statistical Office, 2014). The cause of the high rate of disabilities can be linked to poverty. Poverty leads to living conditions that can cause a disability, be it malnutrition, lack of clean drinking water, lack of infrastructure or inadequate medical care (WHO, 2011). The latter was the case with Carlito. However, according to surveys in Nicaragua, the most common reason for a disability is the extreme poverty in which many people with disabilities live. Buying the most basic medicines becomes impossible (ENDIS, 2003). Religious and cultural reasons for the under-provision of many people with disabilities must also be considered in some cases: for example, the belief that the child's disability is God's will - if medical treatment does not work immediately, people give up. And God's punishment brings social shame; there is a high tendency to hide children with disabilities from society (ENDIS, 2003).

San Rafael del Sur, Managua, Nicaragua
Day 16 Day 16
The good deed

Providing medication to around 23 children with disabilities primarily improves their quality of life and extends their life expectancy. In emergencies, vital operations can be paid for, which would otherwise be impossible. Some of the children can lead more independent lives as they are less affected by their illness. Other children are relieved of severe pain, and their parents can breathe a sigh of relief because their children's improved health is a relief.

AboutNicaragua
Managua
Managua
Capital city
6 080 500
6 080 500
Population
1 881 USD
1 881 USD
Gross domestic product per capita per year
132
132
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)

The largest lake in Central America is in Nicaragua: Lake Nicaragua, also known as Lago Cocibolca. It is the only lake in the world where freshwater sharks live.

About the organization and further information

organization

Los Pipitos Capitulo San Rafael del Sur - Nicaragua / Association for the Promotion of the Town Twinning Kreuzberg - San Rafael del Sur eV

DZI donation seal

Further links