Family story 

 

Eddie and I are proud to be

parents our two lovely daughters

Elaine 8 years and Elon 5 years.

As Christian parents it’s our

desire to see children grow up with the true meaning of God's Love and Mercy.   

 

I met Eddie while working at FOCUS Uganda, a Para-church Nonprofit organization in 2001.  Beyond being workmates, we became really good friends and when Eddie asked me to marry him in 2003, I knew he was the right man God had for me.  We got married in January 2005 and started our lives together as husband and wife.  We asked God to bless us with a baby girl as our first born.  God was so gracious that he gave us Elaine Gracious Asaba'webwa. She was born on May 13, 2006 pretty much earlier than her expected date of delivery which was August 18th.  As a preemie, Elaine had many complications ranging from multiple organ malfunction including liver dysfunction and heart murmur to severe jaundice and coeliac. The first six months of her life were really challenging but God new it all and was in control of her life. By her first birthday Elaine had stabilized. However, around 16 months we realized Elaine wasn't developing her speech and language normally.   At 24 months doctors confirmed our worst fear that she was losing her hearing and she was therefore getting deaf

 

Elaine's journey has been so amazing; full of thanks giving mixed with a lot of anxiety, stress and many uncertainties especially the journey before July 2010 when she got her first Cochlear implant.  Back in Uganda, we had all sorts of fears having a deaf child who would never talk to us or to anyone else in this whole world, leave alone being rejected by society because of her hearing impairment.  Deaf people in Uganda are severely discriminated against in almost all aspect of life.

 

We are so greatful to God that Elaine is able to hear, speak and above all associate with the hearing world and engaging with her hearing peers socially and academically.  Elaine is right now attending a regular school setting and that fills my heart with unspeakable joy and with all the milestones she's made attending both a specialized school for speech and language development at Clarke School and transitioning into a regular public school gives us so much hope that Elaine will be a great woman to her country Uganda and the world at large.

 

It's with this unspeakable joy of Elaine's gift of hearing and speech that we feel called to reach out to the deaf community in Uganda.  We specifically feel called to:

• Reassure the deaf and hearing impaired children and their families that they are important and valuable members of community once they utilize their full potential academically and socially.

• Share information on the use of hearing aids, cochlear implants and available education resources and opportunities for the deaf and hearing impaired children.

•  To promote education for hard of hearing and deaf children in Uganda under the age of 

• To advocate for early intervention services for deaf children in Uganda

• To promote and advocate for spoken language development for hard of hearing children in Uganda

• To offer speech and auditory therapy to deaf and hard of hearing children in Uganda

• To promote and offer support to parents and families of hard of hearing children in Uganda

• To train and mentor teachers and therapists for deaf and hard of hearing children in Uganda

 

 

God has graciously connected us to two dear sisters in the Lord; Ms. Deb Fredette and Ms. Carrie Brollier. We shall be travelling this summer to Uganda as a team in our first leg towards making this dream a reality. 

Thank you so much for your support and willingness to partner with us in this noble cause. - Edith

 

Click here to read Eddie's story