Mary arrived to Malayaka House in 2013 when she was 9 years old. She has epilepsy and fell into a fire during an episode and and burnt her arm and leg very seriously. After months in the hospital, one of our volunteers found her alone there, took care of her, cleaned her wounds and rescued her arm from amputation.

In order to help her and give her a better life, we decided to bring her to Malayaka House. Since the beginning of 2013 Mary is living with us and we are blessed to have her.

When she arrived, Mary spoke no English, had never been to school nor medicated for her sickness.

We started homeschooling her after some weeks of adaptation and for one year we focused on teaching her spoken and written English, and Maths. She learns slowly but she is constant.

At the beginning of 2014 we decided to take her to school and she was the happiest girl on earth. She started attending the Entebbe Welfare School and in 2016 we moved her to Entebbe Junior, where she went for one year till in 2017 she decide it was too hard for her and now we are again home schooling her.

We also started medicating her under a program started by a Spanish neurologist doctor that visited Malayaka House. He evaluated her and decided the doze she needs to take. Since then, it has been adjusted twice, because Mary is becoming a teenager, and the episodes have slowed down and controlled.

In spite of her sickness, Mary is a happy girl. Twice a day, every day, she takes her medicine proudly and understanding it is something she needs to do and that does not hurt her self-esteem.

She is the sweetest one in the world, affectionate, and sensitive. She has the most beautiful smile in Uganda and we are lucky that it lights every corner of Malayaka House.

All the aunties, but specially Auntie Winnie, takes special care of her and she is safe in the house. She likes helping the aunties wash the dishes, cleaning the compound or taking care of the little ones.

Since last year she shares a room with Mastula, Maggie and Shakira. They all love having their own room and take perfect care of it; they share their small space and are happy together. They like to jump on the rope and play with the elastic. She loves playing cards, especially “Uno”.

She is easy going, always in a good mood and gentle with the rest of the kids, aunties and volunteers. She loves babies and since we have new babies at the house, she spends lots of time carrying them around and playing with them.

Her parents are deceased, but Mary has family and periodically we take care to visit her grandparents and siblings. They are very happy when Mary comes back home and are very grateful to Malayaka House for taking care of Mary.

We are proud of her and learn from her everyday.