{"id":957,"date":"2014-02-04T16:41:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T15:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/blogs\/english\/?p=957"},"modified":"2014-02-04T16:41:43","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T15:41:43","slug":"children-with-downs-syndrome-in-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/children-with-downs-syndrome-in-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"Children with Down\u2019s syndrome in Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Down\u2019s syndrome is not a disease but rather a congenital malformation due to the presence of an extra chromosome. It causes various physical symptoms and mental disabilities in most cases. However, with proper care and enough knowledge, the child can show tremendous improvement and even aspire to a professional life in the future-<\/strong>by <\/em>Joanna Nganda<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cChildren with Down\u2019s syndrome are easily identified, they have round heads, and typical facial<\/p>\n

\"\u201cGarderie<\/a>

\u201cGarderie Sacr\u00e9 Coeur\u201d, Daycare Specialized Institute for Children with Down\u2019s syndrome<\/p><\/div>\n

features; they look like Mongolians but are not from Mongolia. They stay quite short and sometimes present hand deformities. Moreover, they have noticeable learning difficulties, which does not mean that they can\u2019t learn anything!\u201d says Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura, who has a 30 year- experience with children with Down\u2019s syndrome.<\/p>\n

In Burundi, most children with Down\u2019s syndrome are hidden and kept home, away from people and peer interactions. Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura expresses her feelings: \u201cdo you know what revolts me the most? It\u2019s the fact that some parents give privilege to their \u2018normal\u2019 children then forsake the ones with Down\u2019s syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points out that healthy children already have all the tools and opportunities to become successful, whereas children with Down\u2019s syndrome are deprived of most keys to a successful life. Therefore, they should be the ones to get more help from the parents. \u201cHiding and isolating them will cause deep depression and deprive them of the slightest stimulating activity,\u201d says Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura, expert in Down\u2019s syndrome and Owner of the newly opened \u201cGarderie Sacr\u00e9 Coeur\u201d at Kabondo, Bujumbura.<\/p>\n

Alain-Patrice M., father of a 15 years old girl with Down\u2019s syndrome, admits that he used to hide his daughter from curious eyes. \u201cMy wife died when our daughter was 3 years old. I had no idea how to take care of her or even how to console her, those are motherly things. So, to avoid her being teased all the time, I decided to keep her home and hire a maid to do her cleaning and feed her,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Besides discouraging these kinds of behavior, Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura says that the child with Down\u2019s syndrome misses out on a lot by staying indoors and away from people.
\n\u201cIn 3 weeks, I have noticed tremendous changes in the children that I care for. They don\u2019t drool anymore, the ones who arrived with bad hand deformities can now hold a mug by themselves when they used to drink with a straw, they greet people politely, are able to play with their mates, and learn how to live in a clean environment, etc\u2026 Having a child with Down\u2019s syndrome should not be a shame. Stimulating them daily can change their life for the better,\u201d states Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura.<\/p>\n

She also says that her ultimate goal is to give the children some independence: to learn how to do their daily personal hygiene is the basic. Also, pinpointing their individual talents is essential in order to work on them, improve and make them a potential professional choice for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren with Down\u2019s syndrome are children like others, with their own personalities and emotions. They need a lot of attention, affection, and a special environment adapted to their needs. They need to be constantly stimulated to avoid their brain activity to snooze and decrease,\u201d explains Immacul\u00e9e Segahungura.<\/p>\n

She also stresses that it\u2019s never too late to improve them intellectually. She strongly encourages parents and\/or tutors to intellectually stimulate their children and avoid hiding them which, she says: \u201cit is nothing less than torture when one knows how they suffer from loneliness, they can feel they are being isolated and get depressed, behave badly and turn the whole house upside down. Now, there\u2019s a specialized institute for them in Bujumbura, there\u2019s no more excuse not to take proper care of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legend
\n\u201cGarderie Sacr\u00e9 Coeur\u201d, Daycare Specialized Institute for Children with Down\u2019s syndrome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Down\u2019s syndrome is not a disease but rather a congenital malformation due to the presence of an extra chromosome. It causes various physical symptoms and mental disabilities in most cases. However, with proper care and enough knowledge, the child can show tremendous improvement and even aspire to a professional life in the future-by Joanna Nganda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[108,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}