george bush otieno, berly akinyi and bill clinton otieno are childrn of one parent, allhaving different disabilites, if it were yo what could you hve done?
It is a joy of every mother to have children, and it is said children are a blessing and you have to appreciate and love them. They are innocent creatures; they can hardly understand what is happening around them, because their innocence is pure and true. Every woman hopes to be a mother someday, and when that moment comes they become selfish because all that makes sense and importance to them is their children.
A mother can sacrifice all she has just to make their children happy and make sure they have a good life. But this joy of having children becomes a shattered cloud to a mother who doesn’t quite understand how a blessing can turn into pain when it is suppose to bring joy and happiness in their life, This is the case with Millicent Akinyi a mother of nine children living in Kibera slums, she lives in a single room house with all her children, and you can say life is not easy for her.
Every time she talks you can clearly understand and see the pain that she is going through, she has three challenged children and she is the only one who supports her children, not that she doesn’t have a husband but he doesn’t do anything to support her. He uses his sweet money to drink than help his wife with the raising of the children; you can as well say that she is raising the children on her own, since her husband doesn’t offer much help. She says that if it is possible to return children in her womb she will do it, rather than to have her children suffer and she can’t help them. It is much heartbreak when a mother wishes not to have children not because she doesn’t want to but because she doesn’t want to bring them in this world to suffer.
Beryl, George and Clinton are the children of Millicent Akinyi .Beryl has a learning disability and she is very weak while Clinton and George are twins and they are both epileptic and Autistic but Clintons status is severe while George’s is very mild . George on the other hand is very active and he can communicate while his twin Clinton can’t. This is what this mother has to deal with everyday. These children need special care and treatment and also have someone to observe them every time but their mother can’t because she has to go and search for casual jobs so as to provide for her big family.
Millicent says that it is very hard for her to raise her three challenged children that it reached a certain point that her husband suggested that she through the twin away but she refused, since she refused the husband told her that it was her own responsibility to take care of them, not once in her life she says that her husband has helped her. She was forced to take the children to hospital by herself that at a certain time she got chest and breathing problem which almost caused her life; this was due to carrying the children on her back every day to the hospital for assessment and medical care.
This year she can put a smile on her face, since the children got admitted in Mary Rice day care center, she says that she feels that the burden has been uplifted from her shoulders. In Mary rice they are being provided with medicine and food and the school requirement thank to the well wishers that support the transition centre, they are provided with medicine and also with food through the feeding program, which they have breakfast and lunch every day, These meals are to keep them until the next day they come to school if they don’t get anything to eat at home. It becomes a big challenge to this mother when the school is closed because now she has to take care of her children and work at the same time.
She can even hardly afford the medicine for George and Clinton because the medicine is very expensive, and the money that she makes can only be enough to cater for food, they also go without food for some days when the mother is not lucky to get a job. Every mother wants to give their children the best of life so that her children can have a successful life, but for this mother the only thing she lives with is hope and faith that a brighter day is going to come her way. She teaches her children to survive on this harsh world. Eating three meals a day for them is a luxury because they can’t afford to live in such a lifestyle, but think of these children who are sick and requires a special diet, what will come of them! She doesn’t have much choices but she always does her best.
Two of her children were able to study with the help of well wishers; this knowledge was not of much important to them with an empty stomach, lucky them they were taken to boarding schools and didn’t have to face this but the other sibling had to understand and live with this as much as life takes them. She is a very strong woman despite of all that she is going through she can afford a smile on her face, you can tell that she doesn’t have much to smile about but you can’t understand the pain that comes through every time she puts a smile on her face, this is the only thing she can do to avoid the tears in her eyes.
mrdcc2007 