Welcome Home, Aisha!

Meet Aisha!  She is the newest member of the Rafiki family.   She was found alongside a road near Total Mengo, being strangled by her mentally ill mother. A man passing by saw her and immediately went to get the police. When they arrived, the mother was very hostile and violent and it was obvious that she was not capable of caring for her little daughter. The police contacted Rafiki Children’s Home, and the mother was eventually admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Butabika. Aisha is about 3 years old and was dangerously malnourished. She also has some scars on her body, evidence of past abuse. Not much about her father is known, but she will be very welcome in her new family at Rafiki Children’s Home and was greeted by some very excited new brothers and sisters. Aisha was a rather quiet and shy little toddler, but she immediately joined in the dancing with a lot of joy during devotions here at Rafiki!  She spoke very little at first and we rarely saw her smile, but over the last few days she has really come to life and has a lot of fun making silly faces and laughing with the other kids.  

On Wednesday, we took Aisha to Kesserena Children's Clinic to be examined by a doctor.  Apart from being malnourished, and having a couple wounds, she was fairly healthy and tested negative for malaria.  They were not able to test for HIV that day, however, so on Thursday she was tested at Kadic Hospital.  When the lab tech there was preparing to draw her blood, he started asking questions about her and the work that Rafiki is doing.  He mentioned also having worked with HIV-positive orphans in the past, and said that he would be praying for us.  When we went back to get Aisha's HIV results, he said that she was negative!  He also said, however, that due to her appearance he had decided to test for malaria and found her positive of a rare species that would have been hard to see on the other test she received.  We truly believe that God directed him to run that test, because had he not we would have never known that Aisha has malaria and wouldn't have been able to treat her for it.  Since receiving the medication, she seems to have so much more energy!  God was good in taking care of this precious girl, and we are so happy to have her here.  We pray that He continues to heal her, both physically and emotionally, through the loving care of the Rafiki staff and kids.
--Amanda Weber & Niomi Klassen (Rafiki Vounteers)