Meet Victor and Cristian
 |
| Victor |
Victor and his family live up in
the mountains in Arusha, Tanzania with no running water or electric. Their crumbling, dusty mud home is windowless
and sanitation is extremely poor. Victor's condition leaves him in constant pain in
his legs and at night, he shares a single bed with his mother and two siblings rendering
sleep near impossible.
Victor’s home is partitioned by a wall and shared with neighbours; Cristian (9yrs), his older brother Clement and their mother. Cristian’s mother has been blinded by untreated
glaucoma and Cristian's role at such a young age is to guide his mother around
and be her eyes in between attending part time at a local orphanage
school.
Gerallt had no idea that this
had been going on until just before he left Tanzania in March 2013, he had
barely ever seen Christian’s Mama during numerous visits to see Victor as she mostly stayed inside her home. Before he
left in 2013, Gerallt took Cristian and his Mama to a hospital in Arusha to establish her
diagnosed and despite there being no medical help for the condition, efforts
are being made to find a suitable place for Cristian's mother to find training
and employment so that she may be able to gain some level of independence and
freedom from her life restricted to the house in which she spends most of
her time. She is only in her mid 30's.
 |
| Cristian |
2015 - The Project
The project Gerallt has set up to complete before
he leaves Tanzania in March 2015, is to build Victor and Cristian’s families a
new home out of the mountains with facilities amongst a local community to help
support them.
The new, one floor, house
will have three spacious rooms - two for Victor and his family and one for
Cristian and his family. There will be large windows in the house, and a couple of doors - something that you might not
think is a huge deal, but it will let in a lot of light sunshine into
Victor's weekends and early evenings after school. He'll have his own bed for
the first time in his life, and the house will be made of cement and bricks,
dramatically reducing the amount of dust inside and improving this impoverished
family's health significantly.
Money has been raised
for this house build, but it's still on a tight budget.
How you can help
Gerallt posted the
following on on facebook today (14/01/2015):
“We're looking to furnish the house with bunk beds for
Victor and his brother and a bed for his older sister.
 |
| New building foundations |
To
get around, Victor has to be carried everywhere. I saw him just yesterday being
carried in to his mud hut by a 12 year old friend of his. His freedom is restricted, and he probably
feels like a burden. Personally, I think that's the saddest part of it all. So I'm hoping to get the money together to get
Victor a wheelchair so he can be wheeled around a bit and be taken for a spin
around his village with his friends, instead of being left inside his mud hut.
Surely
a little boy who's survived living in a cramped mud hut with Muscular Dystrophy
deserves to have a bit of fun and a spin around Arusha in his life?
As
always, a full breakdown of all costs related to the project is available for
anyone to see.
If
you know of anyone who'd like to sponsor the purchase of a wheelchair for
example, or sponsor the purchase of a bunk bed, please inbox me.
Whatever
you can afford to donate will be much appreciated.
You can donate straight to my paypal -
geralltparry712@hotmail.com to avoid Gofundme charges on your donations.
If anyone would like to
contribute to the completion of this project, please feel free to contact
Gerallt directly via facebook or message me directly via google+ for more details.
More information about Gerallt Parry and the projects he has taken on, single handedly improving the lives of hundreds of people over the past five years can be found in my previous blog. You can also read about his achievements in developing and managing Cheka, a Pre-Primary school in the region of Sakina, Tanzania.
