Peace Nattawa, a 20year old woman came from Butalejja in Mbale District with a swelling in the face that covered her nose and mouth. She had had it for 3months. This swelling started as a tinny pimple that progressively developed into a huge swelling. She and her family sought help from a variety of health care centers but in vain until when they decided to seek a specialist’s advice. From speaking to her and seeing Peace’s photos taken before the disfigured face set in, one can tell what a beautiful young woman she is. Aside from the pain, stress from stigma is killing her on the inside. In addition to being grounded in the hospital, none of her schoolmates or friends from back home has paid a visit or endeavored to call to find out how she is doing. Her stress has been passed on to the care takers/ attendants despite our effort to provide care, counsel them all and promise that things will be fine even when we are unsure of what’s going to happen next. How wish we could do something? It’s not unusual for us as social and health workers to get depressed as well.

Life offers many surprises which are both good and bad but living under the cross of generational poverty is the worst, because even the basic needs of life become only wishes. Peace’s condition shouldn’t have escalated to this stage, and she should have already been treated by now had she been informed or had informed parents. Basic healthcare is a challenge in a resource limited environment. Under such circumstances, it can take ages before a patient finally is referred to an appropriate specialist. It seems all the forces of failure are at working overtime under these circumstances

Despite the unfailing love of a mother, Peace has lost hope that she cannot acknowledge her mother’s support during this trying moment. She believes she is unlucky and frustrated over not living the life she dreamed as child.

This tumor has disfigured her feminine feature that her mouth is almost none existing. Luckily, she has no trouble feeding but the tumor is fungating with a terrible smell.

Caring Hands got to know about Peace two days before her admission in Mulago Hospital. The doctors are ordering several investigations, CT SCAN, ABNORMAL SCAN AND CHEST X-RAY whose bills have to be taken care of by Caring Hands. We hope that the cause of the problem is identified with no metastasis in order to carry out a surgery. Peace needs her face revamped. Discussing all possibilities of restoration have rekindled her hope. She is very grateful to Caring Hands and to everybody who directly or indirectly has contributed to her well being.

This is one of the cases among the many patients we as Caring Hands Foundation are taking care of. We will keep you updated as events unfold.