Dasha – was born on the 18th of October 1998.
Diagnosis: cerebral spastic infantile- spastic tetraparesis accentuated in the lower limbs
Telephone numbers of parents and volunteers
… One day a volunteer at our foundation saw a crying woman in the street with a disabled child in a wheelchair. As an experienced volunteer knowledgeable about the great challenges of children with special needs in our country, Vladimir could not help starting a conversation with this woman.
...One day, Nina Ivanovna was returning from the doctor, pushing her 12-year-old granddaughter Dasha in a wheelchair. This was just another doctor’s appointment for Dasha, which required yet another costly purchase of prescription medicine. The grandmother realized that this treatment could work effectively for Dasha, but the biggest question was “How could she pay for it?” Today, Nina Ivanovna is struggling for Dasha’s health and doing everything possible and impossible to help her beloved granddaughter. But the grandmother is really tired of struggling. The only family income is her old-age pension and Dasha’s disability grant – all in all around 2, 000 hryvnyas a month (249 $)…Every day of their life is a real dilemma: how to find money for medicine, where to get a suitable wheelchair, and how to afford a massage therapy… The concerned woman failed to notice her gloomy thoughts had become apparent on her face and tears were rolling down her cheeks.
In fact, Dasha’s got more diagnoses than stated in the diagnosis chapter. Although I somehow don’t want to enumerate all these severe and complicated medical terms, Dasha has been diagnosed with many illnesses since cerebral spastic infantile paralysis is actually a generalized term involving many syndromes of cerebral affection and central nervous system damage.
I’d like to tell you about life of a wonder-grandma and her wonder-granddaughter who, despite all the difficulties is learning, making progress, and is full of life!
Due to birth trauma Dasha’s got a many diseases, with the cerebral spastic infantile paralysis being the most severe. The chance of survival was slim, but the girl grabbed it. Despite the fact that Dasha has survived, her challenges are not over. Soon afterwards, she had to undergo another terrible ordeal: Dasha’s young parents could not stand this heavy burden of treatments and the upbringing of their severely disabled daughter, and decided to leave her at a specialized institution.
However, Dasha was rescued by her kind grandma, whose optimism and faith help the girl live and achieve incredible results.
First, Dasha’s grandma never had the slightest doubt that everything would be allright. Secondly, she immediately got involved in several directions such as treatment, rehabilitation, and learning. At first she took Dasha to a speech therapist, who helped the girl learn to pronounce sounds. When the girl got stronger, the grandma started to take her to a specialized boarding school for children with mental retardation.
If you only knew what it means ‘to take’ Dasha to school: despite all the massages and therapeutic procedures, the girl is not able to walk on her own. Just imagine- Dasha and her grandma live on the 2rd floor without any elevator. Therefore, they have to overcome the distance between the second and ground floors on her grandmother’s back.
To save herself from sad thoughts, Nina Ivanovna has started making icons using bead embroidery.
However, Nina Ivanovna doesn’t like to complain. On the contrary! She’s really happy to bring some joy into her granddaughter’s life. Dasha and her grandma have many reasons to be proud! The girl’s psychological and educational references show her wonderful achievements: “Dasha has learnt 18 letters; she can read syllables, mono and disyllabic words with assistance. She answers the questions with one or two words. She loves fairy tales, poems and games”. Certainly, the girl has some difficulties with math, as well as with spatial and time representation. But Dasha’s got an inquiring mind. The girl likes studying and she gets a kick out of doing her homework!
Dasha lives in her special world, created by her loving grandma and the enthusiasm of teachers who help children in rehabilitation centers and specialized boarding schools.
But Nina Ivanovna needs our support! For some reason, the girl’s lower jaw maldeveloped – it is placed back, thus her lower teeth shifted back into her mouth. As a result, Dasha’s got problems with pronouncing all the groups of sounds and she’s speaking through her nose. Such teeth challenges hinder Dasha from chewing which has led to digestion problems. This teeth problem can be solved with a bracket system which is used to align teeth. But Nina Ivanovna cannot afford such an expensive treatment. In Dasha’s case, this bracket system will not just help in a cosmetic way, but will definitely make it easier for the girl to chew as well as pronounce the sounds correctly.
And that’s why Nina Ivanovna was crying at the beginning of our article, and that’s why our volunteer gave her the contact information of our foundation, and that’s why we are appealing to you – our big-hearted readers who never leave anyone all alone with their pain.
We are not asking you to do something impossible-we are aware of the fact that the cerebral spastic infantile paralysis cannot be cured. But we are asking you to donate some money to help Dasha buy a bracket system which will improve her quality of life. Such a bracket system costs approximately 6, 000 hryvnyas (747 $). Dasha also needs Cerebrocurin medicine, one package of which costs 3, 800 hryvnyas (473 $). Let’s support Dasha!
Dasha and her grandmother live in Zaporizhia.
The telephone number of Dasha’s guardian-her grandmother Nina Ivanovna: +38 (066) 226 73 49
Details for transferring your donations for Chuvalova Dasha:
(Please let the Foundation members know about your donations)
You can help by using convenient ways of donation (PayPal, MoneyGram, Western Union, Webmoney, etc.) .
For further information contact the volunteers of the Happy Child Foundation.
