Murchadh’s Story
December 16, 2015
Murchadh or as we now know his is called Yunusa, he was five in August this year. Since our trip in 2014 he had been living in another village with his mum and attending The Good Shepherd Nursery School and making good progress.
His mother was in a very volatile relationship and it was not safe for Yunusa to be living there. His uncle who lives in Kabekel took Yunusa back to the village and is staying with his uncle and his grandparents. He came back to the village the day before I arrived at the village. My first stop when I got to the village was to go and see Timothy for an update. It was such a wonderful surprise for me to hear he was back living in the village. When his uncle brought Yunusa to see me it was as if I hadn’t been away for a year, he came straight over to me and 5 minutes later he was asleep in my lap.
He will continue to live with his grandparents and other family members for the foreseeable future. The following day I took him to the nursery in Kabekel. It was fantastic to see him going to nursery, making friends and playing with the other children. I would make an excuse every day to go and see him in his class. It was amazing to see how quickly he settled in.
The next step was to organise his uniform. His teacher, Yunusa and myself travelled 7 Km to Brikama to buy fabric and take it to the tailors so that he would make 2 sets of uniform for him. The uniform for the boys is shorts and a shirt in green and yellow. The uniform was ready the following day. The total cost for uniform was £4 for 2 sets. Very different from how we order uniform here, fill in a slip with your order, return it to school and several weeks later your uniform arrives. Costing much more than £4. A new pair of shoes at a cost of £2 completed his nursery uniform.
In Gambia when you are born you get your own medical card, this card is kept at home and each time you go to the doctor or hospital you take the card with you. I could see that Yunusa had missed his inoculations for yellow fever, measles and polio. We went to the clinic which was in Brikama to get the inoculations. The doctor also gave me some vitamin tablets for Yunusa to take for a week to boost his immune system, the cost of this was £3. The inoculations are provided free of charge by the government. Yunusa will need to go back in November in 2016 for his polio booster and he will then be covered for life. It is very important that his inoculations are up to date as many children die from measles and other diseases that are easily preventable.
When you see Yunusa now he is so happy, he has even started talking, smiling all the time and every day after nursery he would come to the school build. It was so lovely to see him and I miss him every day.
Roseann Macleod
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