When I met Idrin Gani at Chise Village in the Mukuni Cheifdom last October she had a terrible limp and one leg was much thinner than the other. I enquired as to what was wrong with her leg and she lifted her skirt and showed me her thigh which was covered in sores. Seeking out her parents I learnt that from the age of two Idrin had developed a problem with her leg and had spent years having physiotherapy until her parents ran out of money. However she happily limped the three miles every day to Kamwi School to receive an education and is now eleven years old.

I sent her to Mukuni Health Centre to have the sores checked out; she had previously been the month before and given ointment which had no effect. The medical officer referred her to Livingstone hospital for an X-ray, where they discovered she had Osteomyelitis, an infection of bone or bone marrow. She was in a great deal of pain, put on a course of antibiotics and had to remain at Mukuni Health Centre until her fever had lessened. The outside temperature was 40 degrees, she and her mother had no money for food and were naturally very frightened; despite this whenever I visited Idrin she always had a smile on her face and never complained. She then had to live in Livingstone for several weeks to receive extensive physiotherapy before being sent to hospital in Lusaka.

Idrin with her mother at Mukuni Health Centre

Several months later having undergone an operation on her good leg to stop it growing longer than the other, Idrin is back in the village of Chise playing with her friends. She had been given a new pair of shoes one of which had to be raised. Had I not found Idrin and sent her to the clinic the infection would have been fatal. Even if she had gone to the clinic without my intervention her family would not have been able to pay for the lodgings, treatment and physiotherapy. The Butterfly Tree has paid for all her costs and the sympathetic doctor learning that she was a needy case performed the operation free of charge.