Joyce's family situation is complex, her mother has alcohol abuse issues, and upon visiting her family home we discovered here grandmother, Betty, was seriously ill with TB - weighing only 28kgs (61lbs). Due to malnutrition Joyce is always sick and unable to go to school. Her mother never went to school and so is unable to secure regular employment, meaning food is scarce. They are stuck in a cycle of poverty.
Joyce needs significant medical and social support in order to help her to get healthy and lead a positive life. Tiny Tim & Friends is currently supporting her in the following ways:
- Providing nutritional support to help her gain weight, improve her general health and boost her immune system
- Providing medical assistance through the TTF Clinic to cure her other ilnesses
- Giving her mother adherence counselling and disclosure support so she can help tell Joyce about her HIV status and help Joyce to understand the importance of taking her medication on time
- Helping her Grandmother (who weighed only 28kgs (61lbs) when we met her) to recover from TB and stop passing this to Joyce through emergency palliative care.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT IN ORDER TO CONTINUE TO HELP HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN LIKE JOYCE AT THE ttf cLINIC
"families in compounds dont have enough food, PEOPLE DIE OF ILLNESSES LINKED TO MALNUTRITION"mARGARET, COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER
“I would love for Joyce to go to be able to go to school and get the opportunities I did not but Joyce is unable to go because its over a 8km walk to the nearest free school and she is not well enough to travel. We just don’t have the money for transport, so walking with her cousins is the only option”.
Miriam, Joyce's mother
Their financial situation is unstable which means they only eat one meal a day consisting of Nshima (a local staple food) and a vegetable. They are unable to afford the K20 ($2) per month needed to access clean water, so draw water from a shallow ground well which was dug by the community in the compound, and is contaminated by drainage and sewer water, causing them to often suffer with diarrhoea. All of the family members sleep in one room, there is no bathroom and they use a pit latrine, which is shared by over 30 other people.