An oasis of mercy…

The day before yesterday, Elsie, a Dutch woman we met here who works for the Leprosy Mission, took us to see some handicapped children undergoing hippo-therapy, riding horses. An English woman named Jane-Ann, who is married to a Sudanese man and moved to Khartoum about 20 years ago, began rescuing abused and neglected horses and donkeys about 15 years ago (there are donkeys everywhere here, they pull wagons and carts and people ride them). Jane-Ann has four children of her own, has adopted or fostered three other children including one really cute deaf boy and is pregnant again!. It was like Grand Central Station at her farm with goats, geese, cattle, horses, dogs, donkeys etc. etc. all over the place, plus all her own kids and handicapped kids and other kids that I never did figure out where they fit in.

Jane-Ann has about 20 horses now and she provides riding lessons for a fee to help pay for the feed but she provides free riding therapy to handicapped children on Wednesdays. The theory is that the motion of the horse walking stimulates the back and abdominal muscles of a child and exercises and strengthens them. Elsie says it works, she’s seen some children who couldn’t walk before the therapy able to learn to walk after months of riding. The children seem to really enjoy it. The horses they use for riding are very docile and good natured. Wayne P., Jas and Rory came along too. Wayne ended up holding one child as he rode around the pen and Rory went to make sand castles with Jane-Ann’s kids in the sandbox. It was a humbling experience. We think we’re here to help the people of Sudan but Jane-Ann is someone who is really making a tangible difference in a lot of lives. If anyone knows of a Canadian charity or service club that is looking for a project sponsor in Africa, I’ve got a suggestion…her blog is at http://miraclessudan.blogspot.com Check it out.

Elsie also took us to her mission to see the setup they have for treating people suffering from leprosy and related problems. So many people, so many children. The medication to treat leprosy is provided for free by the World Health Organization, WHO, but the people have to transport themselves and their children here. Some of them travel 2 hours to get here for treatment.

Interesting how politics comes in to play here. The number of people with leprosy is constantly underestimated as it is considered a reflection of the scale of social development and hygiene in a country. Unfortunately, this results in an inadequate supply of medication being ordered and sometimes they run out at the clinic. Sad.

Wayne