Source: Photo taken from Bidibidi Refugee Settlement
A 27-year-old Meling Betty was robbed of her dreams of becoming a Nurse by a Road traffic at the border between Sudan and Uganda their way to Uganda, a country were they were seeking refuge. She was rushed to Kuru Hospital now Yumbe Hospital to get medical help which unfortunately did not have a good prognosis. A few months later she was referred to several Hospitals that all did not take her out of mobility devices that she has been depending on for quite a while. Today Meling has lost hope of ever getting help that will make her walk on her too feet again without support.
The year was 2017, when there was still a big influx of Refugees from South Sudan coming to the World’s biggest Refugee settlement, Bidibidi Refugee settlement.
27-year-old Meling Betty, a Kuku from South Sudan got involved in an RTA at Sudan Uganda border on their way to Uganda where they were coming to seek refuge in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe District. Due to the state of violence and uncertainty of safety of life, her parents Jansuk John, the father and Hellen Nyoka, the mother could not take her for any urgent medical help but rather they had to wait until reaching safety in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement.
After reaching the Refugee Settlement, she was taken straight to Kuru Hospital (a government Hospital) where they did for her investigations, including x-ray. X-ray result showed a fracture of the left tibia and fibula bones with significant destruction of one tissue.
She was then treated and her leg was put in a POP (Plaster of Paris) cast. 3 months later, the cast was removed and unfortunately there was non union of her fracture. This led to a referral to another referral to Lacor Hospital (a Missionary Hospital) in Northern Uganda for orthopaedic surgery in the same year of 2017.
Unfortunately, all this never yielded a good prognosis due to the massive destruction of the bone tissues. Non-union still remained pronounced.
Being small scale peasant farmers, her parents exhausted all the resources they had. Other Health implementing partners working in Bidibidi Refugee Settlement took over her treatment.
She was referred to Mulago in 2019, a Government National Referral Hospital for another orthopaedic surgery which was not done for reasons not disclosed to them.
She was again referred to Mulago in 2020 and 2021 for the same orthopaedic surgery that was not done in those different visits for reasons again not known to them. However, they attributed it to the high cost of surgery.
In 2021, she was referred to Comprehensive Rehabilitative Services of Uganda (CoRSU) located in Entebbe. I being Private, she was reviewed, investigations were done and given a bill of 5.5 million Ugandan Shillings (1,500 usd). Due to unclear reasons, the surgery was not done again.
In 2021, she was again referred to Lacor Hospital that previously did her surgery. They were told that it would cost them around 8 million Ugandan shillings (2,165 usd) that they also did not have and hence the surgery was not done.
Together with her parents, they became desperate and tired of moving from one Hospital to another only to fail to get the service they are looking for.
Meling Betty sat for her Uganda Certificate of education in 2014 at Day Star Secondary School and her dream of becoming a Nurse slowly vanished completely.
With her two brothers, Taban Alison and Ladu Benard and two sisters, Diko Leah and Kiden Agnes, Meling Betty just sits at home.
As an individual who has a lot of interest to learn, she always utilises any learning opportunities that she comes across. She is currently learning Computer skills being organised for the \refugees by Hello World, one of the partners operating in Bidibidi Refugee settlement.
She hopes to one time make use of the knowledge that she acquires from the training for doing her own business or when she gets an opportunity of employment somewhere.
With lost hope of becoming a Nurse, Meling Betty still hopes to do something to earn by her self when an opportunity presents itself.
SOURCE:
Personal story
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