Thursday, May 17, 2018

From our files | Two-year-old Ido and his challenges

A representative image; this is not Ido and Ido is not the real
name of the child profiled in this report
Ido was born with serious development delays, with birth defects and with respiratory difficulties.

Now a smiley, friendly two-year-old boy, he lives with his parents and three siblings in Israel's northern-most coastal city, Nahariya.

Because of digestion and motor issues, Ido must eat only pureed foods and in small amounts. He has to be woken twice each night to eat so that his nutritional requirements are met. 

His breathing is aided by a tracheotomy tube like the one you see in the photo above.

Starting in September 2017, Ido has been getting speech therapy and physiotherapy at home through the Malki Foundation's Therapies at Home program. The physiotherapist, selected always by his parents as a matter of our policy, is focusing on helping him sit up straight (did we mention he is grappling with scoliosis?), improve his movement by enhancing his crawling skills, and advancing his ability to play and to communicate.

Ido’s mother called the Malki Foundation office in Jerusalem recently to say thank you. She mentioned how he has begun crawling, and now says a few words. When Ido first said “Abba” (daddy in Hebrew), the family encountered a deeply emotional moment. 

Ido's mother told us that the support her family gets from the Malki Foundation does more than simply enable therapy sessions that would otherwise put a great strain on the family's already-stretched resources. It gives her the physical, mental and - yes - economic strength to help her son through the multiple challenges he faces daily on the road to eventual greater independence.

The Malki Foundation's therapy programs have enabled many thousands of therapy sessions for families in Israel whose needs are nominally met via the conventional government channels or in the framework of their child's education. None of these therapy sessions would have happened if the families had to rely only what the government and the health funds provide. Our work makes a positive difference for hundreds of families and the children with special needs whom they love. 

(Though the facts and figures are always true and correct, children's names and photos used in these published file reports are always fictitious in order to protect the privacy of the child and the family.)

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