TAUF: Deborah and Daniel

Recently I was introduced to a lovely lady and her beautiful daughter, meet Mama Deborah and Deborah, I think I have mentioned before but for those of you who don't know, in Tanzania Mamas are generally called Mama x, x being their first born child, however, somethimes they are named after another one of their children. In this case, I came to know Mama because of Deborah, so I call her Mama Deborah.

Mama, Baba and their baby

Deborah was born April 2015 to a Masaai family, I met her in December when she started attending the malnutrition clinic at the local government hospital, Deborah has Downs Syndrome which is a partial or full extra copy of the Chromosome 21, this extra chromosome typically causes some level of learning disability and characteristic physical features. However, every person with DS, just as everyone else, is an individual and their characteristics and learning disability will vary greatly. Typically people will say, children with DS all look the same and that they are always happy, that is not true, they are likely to look more like their families than other individuals with DS and they have a range of feelings just like everyone else, just that usually, they need extra support and guidance.

Deborah may have DS but that doesn't define her, she is Deborah and she is perfect and beautiful.

As we were about to leave we were also introduced to Daniel, Dabiel and Deborah are cousins, their Mothers are sisters. Daniel was born September 2012 and also has DS. Up to this point he, like Deborah, is very malnourished and is unable to walk or talk, he does however, love to smile, I saw that in the brief few minutes we were together.

To protect the children and families privacy I do not want to tell you details about their family, but, lets just say they live in a very difficult situation.

From this point on, I am hopeful that we, TAUF, will be able to support these two amazing, beautiful, children to help provide them with a brighter future.

They live in a beautiful forest, which is not too far from me, but, it is on a very difficult road and I never even knew it existed.

It sure is a very beautiful area.

Hugs, Mama Watoto x