Medicine man.....Can I blame her?.....

Last week one of my 4 year old patients 're-appeared' again in Freetown.
She had been gone for nearly 2 months.
Where?
Her family kept telling me she's gone upline....to get medicine to get better.

Sadly, the bright little girl has Cerebral Palsy caused by brain damage during a traumatic birth (very common here), and will never fully 'get better'. She will always have physical problems aswell as speech problems, and due to those she will unlikely succeed at school even if in the very unlikely event that she even gets a chance at school here.

So who had they taken her to?

Well the story goes that a lady had seen her in the market and spoken to her mum, saying she knew of a old man upline that could fix the problem and make this child walk again.

Now, if your chid had a disability and were promised this, would you not go for it?

Then if you found out that it meant going to see a traditional medicine man,
.........would you still go for it?

It's easy for us to be quick to jump and say she did the wrong thing. But as a desperate mum she was only trying to help her child get better.

A medicine man practices in traditonal medicine and witchcraft which is why I certianly DO NOT think it is a good idea. Spiritual practices are all too common here and there is great power in them, though not a good kind of power. Strongholds and curses are totally believed in and in reality do make a negative difference on people's already desperate lives.

So when I asked what exactly he did....
Apparently using various kinds of local herbs, seeds and leaves, pounding and boiling them together, he then wrapped her legs in the leaves to dry out. This happened daily along with stretching the legs.

So is that so bad?
- well actually depending on how the stretches were done, that is something we had already taught mum to do.
As for the leaves, well I can see how warmth could help reduce the stiffness caused by abnormal tone.
But I dont like is the witchcraft that is the basis of it all. And the likely large amounts of money invovled. No one has spare money around here and everyone is desperate to make money, but it is totally wrong for one poor person to give false expectations and rob another poor person.

I asked my patients mum if she feels her child had improved at all, she said no.

I'm just thankful that the child came back alive. I have heard many stories before about witch doctors offering to take these disabled children 'back to where thay have come from', in other words disposed of. The thought of killing a helpless child just because they are disabled churns within me. But here being able bodied is hard enough to survive - what chance do you or your family have if you are disabled?

I explained that I understood her reasons for going, but begged her not to go again. Explaining again that the cause of the problem is in the brain and that no medicine or operation would change and that getting invovled in witchcraft is certainly not the answer.

For a while now they had been doing well with the exercises and activities we had been doing with them, so we persuaded them to continue with these. Unfortunately progress with these kinds of kids is slow and can therefore be discouraging for the family.
However she is actually close to walking with a frame for herself now, so lets keep praying to our Almighty and Powerful Lord Jesus - who is the only true and good Healer of all.