CHRISTINE CHIHAME, Lusaka
CURLED in her mother’s embrace, Peggy Hamatwi, 6, scratches her eyes. Her mother tries to stop her but she continues.
From scratching her eyes she immediately starts scratching her ears.
Peggy is in pain from a skin condition called Ichthyosis, which has made her body have scales.
“This is what she does every day. These things have also spread in her eyes and ears. She rarely opens her eyes due to the pain and itching. As a mother, I wish I can carry my child’s pain and dilemma, but it’s so impossible. She’s too young and fragile to go through what she’s going through,” her mother Ms Mainess Chileshe says.
Despite not going to school, Peggy is able to speak English fluently.
As this writer interviews her mother, Peggy asks: “This auntie who has come, what does she want? Mummy, tell me she has come to give me medication for these itchy things I have,” Peggy asks with her eyes closed.
Her mother quickly responds saying, “Very soon a cure will be found and CLICK TO READ MORE