Shadows of hopelessness, Rays of Hope: From Exclusion to Inclusion

She had prolonged labour, the baby weighed 4.5killograms, her condition unknown to parents and
the medics, she dropped to 3 kilograms after a few weeks. Put in an incubator and on oxygen for
two weeks her mother looked on with dashed hopes as she lay still without any movement, and with
closed eyes and open mouth.
Emmanuella's mother, Simeu Sabine, had a difficult delivery which led to health complications for
several days. Sabine is a petit businesswoman. She recounts the condition of her child's birth adding
that; \"when my breast milk started flowing, Emmanuella could not suck for some days. I tried bottle
feeding but she still could not suck, and so I could only feed her with the use of a spoon.\"
Emmanuella was delivered with Cerebral Palsy (brain paralysis) CP, which was not immediately
known by her family and the medical staff. Her mother explains that some people said the child had
drunk dirty water at birth, others said it was meningitis, while others claimed the baby was
bewitched. With this condition, Emmanuella had seizures and drooling.
Sabine never knew the right diagnoses until she was referred to a neuro pediatrician where the baby
was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, a disability that affects movement and coordination. Even after
the diagnoses at one and a half years, wrong information about treatment was given - surgery. She
was also placed on treatment for seizures. According to the mother, there is some improvement -
reduced seizures and drooling.
Despite these improvements, her irreversible condition stayed on. However, on identification by
the Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) worker from the Empowerment and Disability
Inclusive Development (EDID) Program of the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) Health
Services, the right information about CP was given to the mother. An assessment was done and a
rehabilitation plan developed for Emmanuella, using the International Classification of Functioning
(ICF) tool by the WHO.
\"When I met the EDID program, I had hope that the child's condition will become better, believing
that someday a surgery will be done to correct the child's condition. But through education and
counseling from CBR Field Workers, I was made to understand that the condition was a result of
brain damage and could not be corrected through surgery\" she expressed.
In August 2019, two Support Tools Enabling Parents (STEP) evaluators from South

Africa Kate Sherry and Lyndal Alexander visited the family, to know the impact of this Liliane
Foundation-sponsored program. Emmanuella's mother still sought to know if she can find help
abroad. She was again made to understand that CP cannot be cured, but can be managed to improve
the child's development and functioning through functional activities.
It is worth noting that when the field workers met Emmanuella, she was always abandoned and
isolated in the room. \"When we met with Emmanuella, she was always in the room since she
couldn't do anything on her own, like sit, talk, and walk. To make matters worse, her father had
abandoned the family because of the child's disability accusing the mother of witchcraft,\" explained
one of the Field Workers, Constance.
Since the CBR team stepped in, a lot of psychosocial counseling has been done with the mother for
her to accept the child's condition. A unique plan was made and her mother drilled on approaches
that she could use in helping the child to improve on her abilities at home; sitting positioning with
the use of adapted CP chair, etc. The success of this approach is now visible in Emmanuella's
improved abilities; she can eat by herself - an activity she enjoys, she tries to do things on her own
and indicates that she loves handball while demonstrating with a ball. The mother loves her, she is
no longer left alone, she plays with friends and now she is enrolled in the National Centre for the
Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, Yaounde. Emmanuella's mother takes her to school and
back.
Both the school administration and her teacher paint her reality in these words. \"Emmanuella's

condition has improved from the day we admitted her in this class. Formerly, she had low self-
esteem and could not socialize; she could barely utter a word, do a gesture, and seldom smiled,

hardly accepted assistance from others, and could not eat on her own. Today, Emmanuella is happy,
interacts with people, utters more words, smiles a lot, plays with other children, loves singing and
dancing, and can sort and group items. Though with her speech impairment, she does very well

well and was promoted to Initiation 2\". Continuous improvements will enable her to be enrolled in a normal
inclusive session to compete with her peers. The CBR interventions on Emmanuella have restored
hope and assurance to both Emmanuella and the mother.