Lilian is walking again on a new prosthesis

A fire when she was two weeks old

Lilian was born in 2009 in a village in Luwero, a healthy baby. When she was two weeks old, the house where she was sleeping was set on fire. Neighbours pulled her out and rushed her to Mulago Hospital, where doctors fought to save her life.

Lilian survived, but the burns left severe contractures in her legs and across her body. She was discharged with a free wheelchair. Her parents separated, and Lilian stayed in Luwero with her grandmother, who became her everything.

At school, other children kept their distance. When Lilian was in Primary Three, her grandmother could no longer afford the fees, and Lilian almost had to leave school.

Help from a stranger

Then a man named Mr Masembe visited the village and saw Lilian crawling on the ground beside a fence. He asked to meet her grandmother, and offered to take Lilian into his home, pay for her medical care and pay for her school. With tears and trust, her grandmother agreed, and Mr Masembe took Lilian to his home in Mpigi.

Care at CoRSU

Before she started Primary Four, Mr Masembe brought Lilian to CoRSU. The surgeons examined her carefully, but her lower left leg could not be saved. In 2020 it was amputated.

CoRSU then fitted Lilian with a prosthesis. She stood, took a step, then another, and then she ran. At home she played with Mr Masembe's daughters, her new sisters, and at school she made friends.

Two years later her prosthesis broke beyond repair, and the family could not raise the money for a new one. Then CoRSU, with support from CBM, offered Lilian a new prosthesis free of charge. Enos, an orthopaedic technologist, fitted it.

“I can now cheerily fit in the community like other children.”

Lilian now

Lilian is 16. She finished as the best student in her Senior Four class, and she wants to become an accountant. "I admire counting money," she says with a smile.