The Micro Miracle Foundations partnership with families will be a life-long partnership. The needs of the children will be assessed and support will be provided accordingly. The various forms of support range from emotional guidance, to professional therapies, to assistive devices, and possible medical intervention ... FULL LIST. Constant monitoring and feedback will be provided to ensure the developmental progress of the children.

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Changing his World

It's been around since the 16th Century ... The chair

A simple piece of furniture that we take for granted, yet we utilise it more than any other piece of furniture - we spend an average of 9-hours seated.

Depending on our activity, we make use of different chairs eg. a bar stool, patio chair, pool lounger, car seat, dining chair, office chair, and so I can go on.  All with their own unique design based on its use and its setting.

But in our home, we no longer take the simple chair for granted.

In order to sit, our bodies need to do a lot of work:

1. Hold our body upright against gravity

2. This requires muscles and ligaments to support

3. Bones and joints need to be in correct alignment

4. Your knees need to be at right angles

5. Your feet firmly on the ground

So imagine the hard work your brain is doing to send all the  necessary instructions, just to be able to sit.

As a Mom of a special needs child there is nothing more heart breaking than seeing your child's little body uncomfortably scrunched up when in a sitting position - as much as he can sit by himself. His little head bobbing up and down as he desperately tries to see what's going on around him, but he just doesn't have the strength in his muscles to keep his head up. The saliva running out of his mouth, over his chin and onto his clothing. His breathing quicken, his chest bubbling as he battles to breath as his windpipe is squashed because of his slumped sitting position. He takes a huge breath, nearly falling forward off the couch based on the effort required just to get some air into his lungs. Everyone flies across the room to ensure he doesn't fall because he will hurt himself badly.  This would then mean even more hospital visits etc. Never mind the long term damage this is doing to his already compromised body due to the many syndromes he has eg cerebral palsy.

This impacts family life in other ways eg at mealtimes:

We eat in relays as someone must hold Ofentse, he doesn't get to be included in family meals as he is just never at the right height to sit around the table independently. As he gets bigger, it becomes more and more difficult to feed him as one can no longer hold him in the correct position, so you feed him in an almost lying down position - have you ever tried eating lying down on your back!

Then there are his relationships with the extended family eg Granny. Granny wants to do what Granny has done with all my other children  - simple things, to play with him, feed him., but Granny is in her mid-70's and Ofentse is just too big and heavy for Granny.

There are so many other examples I can share.

So simply, how has Charnel's chair impacted Ofentse's life - it has changed his world.

Thank you Charnel, we are forever grateful for you being the person that you are and sharing your knowledge and making the lives of special needs children all over South Africa better.

We love you