Chelsi

Chelsi is a 3 1/2 year girl born with a cleft lip. She has never learned to walk and crawls to get around. Her speech is slightly difficult to understand. Her parents brought her to see Linley at the Convent Clinic for evaluation. (April 2014)

Chelsi's muscles are very tight and she appears to have cerebral palsy. She seemed frustrated with so many people around and with the evaluation, but she was very interested in laptop photos that Linley showed of another child with a walker. The parents were having a difficult time understanding what a walker was and how this could give Chelsi independence. Linley unwrapped another child's adult walker and showed this to Chelsi and her parents.

Chelsi was quick to try out the walker and was delighted. Her personality went from clear frustration to absolute delight! Her parents were in tears, as were the rest of the crowd! Linley began counting as Chelsi took steps and when Linley got to "10" in Indonesian, Chelsea began "11" and counted to 18 to the surprise at even her parents. It seems that Chelsi has been paying attention to so much, while feeling frustrated with her lack of mobility.

Within a few days, logistics were being worked out to send Chelsi another NLLB child's walker when she receives a new one in a month! Without a walker and independent mobility, education is very difficult in Indonesia for children.

In May of 2014, Chelsi's father died of a second massive stroke. He was only 42 yrs old. This leaves Chelsi's mother a single parent of 3 children. NLLB hopes to get Chelsi a walker in the near future.

Update August 2014:

Alina, one of our other NLLB cases has outgrown her walker and received a new one thank's to Yenny (who purchased it and Amy (who hand-carried it from the USA). We are able to send the old and smaller walker to Chelsi. Working out logistics is difficult as this was formerly an outdoor chair and we used the frame (so it cannot be folded). I have a young Indonesian Nun going from Jakarta who will take it to Chelsi in the next 2-3 weeks. Thank Sr. Lulut for her kindness in doing this. She is also carrying the remaining money for Martin's school/boarding fees!

I am hopeful that she will get photos of Chelsi and that we can get Chelsi up and running like we did with Alina.