Patchwork Kids

Blankets and Burns

This is the story of a Ugandan boy in Kikobero village. Read it and understand why something as simple as a blanket can save a child’s life…

The sun sets over the Mount Elgon valley and Wilson huddles beside the fire in his mud hut to keep warm and try to do his homework by the flickering light. On hearing the distant thunder, he positions himself just between two holes in the roof, so he won’t get wet from the leaks when the heavy rains come. The rains, these heavy hailstoney rains, have destroyed the banana leaf roof, once perfectly suited to the climate. Since the rains began, 4 years ago, everything has changed. Wilson’s family used to enjoy growing their own crops of cabbages, maize and casava, they loved the satisfaction of being able to sell what they didn’t eat and choose something from the market to buy that week. But since the icey rain started coming, Wilson has had to rely on the food he gets at school only. He has been told that someone far away in another part of the world has paid for his food and the opportunity to go to school. Everyday he thanks God in Heaven for that person. What he would do without them, he can only imagine.

As he settles down beside the fire, he finds himself inching closer and closer in order to keep warm. The nights are becoming colder on the mountain and the rains bring with them a dampness that chills to the bone. Slowly he begins to drift into sleep.

When he wakes with a scream and a surging pain through his leg, his grandmother quickly tries to cool Wilson’s burns using what water she has. She cries for more water to be brought from the village pump as someone calls to get a doctor. The doctor arrives in time to save Wilson too much harm, but the scares of this incident will be with him for life.

Now, as he settles down to sleep, wrapped in his blanket, also given to him by the kind person in the far away land, he says a prayer for the blanketless children in his village and for the people who saved his life.

This is based on a true story of a child who was badly burned in Kikobero, Uganda. If you would like to give a child a blanket this Christmas, go to: http://www.livinggenerously.com/shop/product/136