Meet Alex

Alex has had a tough life for such a young little one. His mother, who is only eighteen years old, showed up at the house one day looking for help. Alex was born with a congenital brain malformation called holoproncephally, that caused many developmental delays and also caused the center of his head to be soft because his skull did not properly form. He also has seizures and is blind because of the brain damage. We sent his mother to Kijabe to have him checked out by the doctors and they said that they are unable to do an operation without causing more harm and that the prognosis for his diagnosis isn’t great.

Alex on the first day he came to the house with his mother.

Alex on the first day he came to the house with his mother.

His mother stayed with us for a few days between doctors appointments because she traveled about an hour to get to us. Alex’s mother, Esther, told us that things at home were difficult after her mother abandoned them. It was hard for her to care for her son as well as her younger siblings. So we agreed to let Alex stay at the center and made the drive to her house to meet with the area chief. There we were able to learn more about Alex’s home life. We learned that his mother had been arrested for locking him in her house alone for three days without food or water. We also learned that Alex’s father was Esther’s teacher when she was in the 8th grade and said that he did not want anything to do with his child. It had been about a week since Esther had seen her son and it seemed as if only the neighbors were happy to see him. She didn’t hold him once the entire time or say goodbye when it was time to leave.

Lavender heard Alex crying so she crawled over to comfort him.

Lavender heard Alex crying so she crawled over to comfort him.

We are glad to be able to finally give Alex a place where he can feel loved and accepted for who he is. Alex  loves being held and will very rarely flash a great big smile. Because of Alex’s diagnosis his health is continuing to decline. We have worked with the doctors to do what he can to give him the best quality of life, but right now he is struggling with losing weight because of a lack of appetite. Please keep sweet Alex in your prayers and pray that his health starts to improve.

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PO Box 2021-30200, Kitale, Kenya

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