Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ABANDONED at three by a young juvenile and probably traumatised mother and an unknown father, baby Sibongile Ndebele, now six, suffers from a congenital disorder that has made her life tough and somewhat difficult to bear.
Sibongile suffers from gastroschisis, a birth defect of the abdominal wall where the intestines protrude outside the stomach through a hole next to the belly button. So big is the bulge on Sibongile’s tummy that one would assume she has hidden something underneath her clothing. Sunday News spoke to Ms Getrude Ncube (45), her maternal grandmother and she narrated her ordeal.
“Sibongile was born to my daughter Akhile on 4 August 2014 at St Joseph’s in Kezi, but when she was born, we discovered she had her intestines protruding from the stomach. Initially we were told to bring her to Mpilo Hospital where she stayed for over three months as they monitored her as she was unable to eat at that time. She was discharged and we returned to the village with her intestines still protruding from her stomach and we were told that she could only be operated on when she was five years old,” she said.
She added, “Because I do not have any source of income, I failed to assist her and I remained with her in the village taking care of her.”
However, she was identified by a person with interest in health issues while in Kezi.
“One day in 2018 at a village gathering my grandchild was identified by a United Kingdom-based woman Ms Tosca Fairchild while playing with other children. The woman assumed Sibongile was hiding a ball in her dress only to realise it was her stomach. So, this lady asked to take pictures of the child and see if help could be found,” she said.
After two years of trying to get aid, it finally came when Ms Fairchild, a UK-based Assistant Chief Executive of North Staffordshire Combined NHS Trust, a health facility, visited Zimbabwe for a renal training programme where she met other local doctors who she asked to assist.
“Sibongile was seen by a local physician who referred the child back to Mpilo Hospital surgeons where she is admitted and undergoing tests before she is operated on. The doctors said she needs a belt that will compress the bulge for a while before surgery is performed,” she said.
Gogo Ncube said Sibongile faces a number of challenges because of her condition.
“If she gets hungry, she starts lifting the bulge in pain and when she eventually eats, she vomits all the food, so I have to give her small meals to prevent her from vomiting all the time. She gets very weak and cannot play well with other children. The bulge is also very heavy and limits her movement,” she said.
Despite the condition Gogo Ncube has afforded her grandchild the chance to attain an education and she is currently enrolled in an Early Childhood Development class in Kezi. The challenge however, is that Sibongile is temperamental.
“She insults teachers and her peers. Teachers who try to tell her what to do get resistance from her. Other students laugh at her condition and she retaliates and fights them out of anger so they are afraid of her. However, in the community they tolerate her and treat her like any other child as they understand her condition,” she said.
Gogo Ncube said Sibongile eats an ordinary diet like other children her age and said she had a particular liking to rice than any other food stuffs. She said she feeds her sadza from traditional grains so as to give her more strength and better nutrition.
To add on to the challenge of caring for her granddaughter who is unwell, Gogo Ncube says she has children of her own who need assistance too.
“I have five children, we are eight in the family, so I have no one who can assist me. I do small jobs in the community and get paid for it. That is how I survive,” she said.
Asked on the whereabouts of Sibongile’s mother, she said she did not know where she was.
“After the child was born, she took care of her and left when she was three years old to go and stay in Matobo where she had secured a job of manning a relative’s home.”
Owing to the seriousness of the child’s condition she decided to care for the child as the mother was too young, she was 15 when she gave birth to this child.
“She later disappeared and I last heard that she is in Tsholotsho but she has not returned home since then. She once called and when I tried to call back on that number, I didn’t get through to her. I assume that maybe the condition of the child is what made her run away from home as she was scared. But I hope she does return to see her child. The whereabouts of the father have never been known to us too,” said Gogo Ncube.
Sibongile also does not have a birth certificate. Her grandmother attempted to get a birth record at the clinic she was born but was told that only the mother could access it. Gogo Ncube said she was however, grateful for the assistance from Ms Fairchild and is hopeful that her granddaughter was going to get treated for her condition.
“I was never going to assist Sibongile alone. I have no financial muscle so the help that Tosca has brought is a huge relief for me. I was just going to live with my granddaughter in that condition and wait to see the outcome,” she said.
Gogo Ncube said only one of her children go to school. One of her daughters fell pregnant at Form Two and dropped out of school. Her oldest son dropped out at Grade Seven and has been sitting at home while her two other children are not yet of school going age. Ms Fairchild said she met the family back in 2018.
“I met Sibongile in a very remote village Kezi in 2018 and was very touched by her condition. I also recognised that her condition could be treated with corrective surgery and it was just a matter of finding the doctor and surgeon willing to help. Her condition gastroschisis — a birth defect where the baby is born with the intestines outside the body is common, I understand, and it occurs during early pregnancy when the muscles that make up the baby’s abdominal wall do not form correctly,” she said.
She went on; “I understand that the surgery should be straight forward but may have to be done in stages because the growth is very large. With the right help and support Sibongile could lead a happy normal childhood.
“There are so many children like Sibongile who need help to give them a normal and happy childhood. As a Zimbabwean community especially those in the UK, we need to come together and make a difference in children’s lives as well as other equally desperate people in our communities back home,” she said.
Ms Fairchild facilitated that Sibongile and her grandmother travel to Bulawayo and start accessing medical assistance for free as she is indigent.
Online Reporter