Serkalem's Playground
By Tree Davis on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 5:33am
In the town of Addis Ababa there is a hospital that specializes in leprosy called Alert. Patients undergoing treatment for leprosy are not contagious after just 12 hours of receiving their first dose of antibiotics but they will remain on that medication for a whole year to ensure the bacteria is completely eradicated. This is just the beginning of a lifetime of social and emotions healing for many patients who will be out-casted to the fringes of society.
Dr. Saba, my close and dear friend, is the leprosy doctor at this clinic. She works long hours with people who come from all over Ethiopia, often traveling by foot for weeks, to see her.
Aside from the lengthy treatments, patients with leprosy face many other challenges. Children are often abandoned here and left at the care of the hospital or the nearby compound as their families reject them. They do not attend school or have any places to just be children as they recover from this illness.
One particular child was very dear to Saba's heart:
"Serkalem was a 14-year-old patient in ward 3 for two whole years. When she first came to the Red Medical Clinic two years ago, she had just been rescued from a house where she had spent two years working as an un-paid child servant; a house slave. The people she worked for disappeared as soon as she was admitted, and Serkalem, who was an orphan, did not remember the area where her relatives live. So she spent two years in ward 3 suffering from severe leprosy and severe ENL reaction. Unfortunately she died last month from her illness and severe complications caused by the medication."
Serkalem was a feature of this hospital. She was a center of focus for many of the in-patient children who would often be sitting around her bed playing cards and telling stories.
In spite of all her suffering she tried to be cheerful. No one ever visited her in hospital. No one ever asked if she was okay. Her home was in ALERT and we were her family."
Serkalem died in hospital about a month ago. No one, not even Dr. Saba, was informed, until six days after her death. Because of this, there was no funeral for the children and hospital staff to grieve their loss of a dear friend who brought a sense of happiness and community into their lives, amidst her own suffering.
Despite her silent burial in an unmarked mass grave, like the many 'forgotten' who have gone before her, Dr. Saba, the hospital staff and the children who gathered in her room to play games, will never forget their treasured friend.
We would like to honor Serkalem's life as someone who persevered in the midst of so many obstacles, yet found the internal strength to inspire those around her. We want to build a playground in her honor so that this joy can continue to spread to all the children who find themselves here, at the doorstep of Alert. We want to give them a place to play so that they will never forget that they deserve to be children.