FAHIIMA: Mbale City Girl Whose Doctoral Dreams Have Been Shuttered by Unknown Illness

By Ayubu Kirinya

 

MBALE CITY

 

Fahima Namwebya, aged 15 was born a normal girl like any other child.

She would play and attend school normally. But her dreams of being a doctor have since been shuttered by an illness that has deformed her mouth. The illness started in 2016 but has persisted to date.

 

At the age of 7, Fahima, a resident of Nakaloke in Mbale City started experiencing a swelling around the mouth and she was taken to a clinic for medication but the situation kept on intensifying. She was later taken to Mbale regional referral hospital for a surgery but the condition never changed.

 

“It started as a swelling, we went to a clinic for medication but the condition persisted until we went to Mbale hospital” Birunji Aziza, Fahiima’s mother intimated how her daughter’s illness started.

 

Fahima, a girl who was jolly according to her mother, has now become disabled and unable to do anything on her own because of the dire situation, and that she has since stopped schooling since she has been in and out of the hospital. Birungi says at the Mbale Hospital, her daughter was operated on two different occasions but nothing ever changed which prompted the Medics to refer her to Mulago National Referral Hospital.

 

After the second surgery which didn’t yield good results at the Mbale regional referral hospital, we were referred to Mulago National Referral Hospital for further management” she said adding that while at Mulago, she was again operated the third time and that the doctors told her that her daughter could be having cancer but they could not confirm it to her.

 

 

“After the third operation, it seemed as though my daughter was healing but the condition worsened when she had just joined secondary school,” she adds.

 

Fahima was then taken back to Mulago Hospital for the fourth surgery. Birungi says that it hasn’t been an easy task to manage her daughter’s illness noting that she has sold almost everything her late husband who died in 2014 and that she has been surviving at the mercy of good Samaritans who have helped to finance the medical bills of her daughter.

 

“I am now left with nothing after selling everything including a piece of land that my husband left me with just to have daughter’s health better but in vain, in fact as we speak now am supposed to be going to Mulago for a review to determine whether she is due for another surgery but I have no money,” she says.

 

Fahima’s mother is now seeking for well-wishers to support her to have her daughter well and she returns to school who she says is a very clever girl. Her contacts are 0740168347.

 

Fahima says that if helped, she will be able to pursue her dream of being a doctor and be able to help other people who are in need.

 

“I am seeking for help, I want to get back to normal like any other child and I go back to school and pursue my dream. I want to be a doctor but with this condition it looks as if I will never have my dream come true” Fahiima who struggles to speak said.