From our files | Noni, 6

Little girl in a walker, not Noni
(for illustration purposes only)

Noni, a little girl of six, suffers from severe developmental delay. Her family is supported by the Malki Foundation's Therapies at Home program, and uses it for physiotherapy. Between January and June 2015, the program enabled Noni to have 22 physiotherapy sessions. They have been approved for horse-riding therapy too.

It's important to note that none of these therapy sessions would have been possible under the rules of government aid and health fund (Kupat Holim) policies. The support of the Malki Foundation for families of children with serious disabilities kicks in only after the family has sought, and used up, their entitlement to co-funding from those government-mandated sources.

In a May 2015 update report, Noni's mother told us they are doing all they can to move the child’s body. Therapy is very helpful particularly in helping to strengthen her little body. The sessions are also valuable in “teaching” Noni’s body new things that are going to be helpful in life. The result is she can now sit and stand for a longer time and with greater ease.  The mother feels it is very important to continue with as much therapy as possible. (Our experience is that parents who are strongly committed to their child's therapies will ensure the child extracts maximum benefit from them. Attitude is everything.)

November 2015: Noni's mother reports with quiet optimism that there continues to be slow but steady progress. In particular, the therapies enabled by Malki Foundation support are strengthening Noni’s muscles - a significant matter for a child who does not yet sit or stand independently. The largest achievement so far is that, thanks to the therapies and (naturally) with a great deal of encouragement and help, Noni can now take several steps at a time while attached to her walker. Horse-riding therapy is helping with strengthening the child's back muscles, making it possible for Noni to sit for longer stretches of time.

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The Malki Foundation's Therapies at Home program, described here, has enabled tens of thousands of therapy sessions which, because of the limitations of the support provided in Israel by the conventional government channels, would not have been funded and therefore would probably have never happened. Like all of the Malki Foundation's programs, support is given without regard for the religious or national affiliation of the child's family. The key conditions are: the disability is serious; the child spends every night at home with the family; the child's entitlements via government and health fund programs have been sought by the family and refused by the support-provider or used up. Our over-riding goal is to empower the family of a child with special needs. Though the facts and figures are always true and correct, children's names used in these published file reports are always fictitious in order to protect the privacy of the child and the family.