A trainee nurse helped give an African orphan a new home after finding him abandoned while on a work placement.
Jenny Parker, 21, is a former Wilmslow High School pupil studying children’s nursing at King’s College London.
She and fellow student Olivia Wright went on a work placement at Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Ghana last March and discovered a baby who had been abandoned by his mother on a rubbish tip. She found him in a hospital where he was waiting for treatment for cataracts and other disabilities caused by congenital rubella.
Jenny and Olivia fell in love with Kwesi – which means ‘Sunday’ – who was around 18 months old, and started to care for him with the help a ward cleaner called ‘Aunty Dede’.
Jenny said: “Kwesi was in a terrible state. I have never seen a baby so hungry. There are lots of abandoned disabled babies in Ghana, he was called ‘the social baby’.”
The friends wanted to find Kwesi a home and visited a private orphanage nearby, named Jesus is King, run by a couple from Ghana.
When they returned, they were devastated to find Kwesi had been moved to the state-run Osu Children’s Home four hours away in Accra.
They had to fly home but when they got back launched the Kwesi Fund to pay for him to move to Jesus is King and have cataract surgery to restore his sight. They raised £5,000 and have now had the happy news that Kwesi is in his new home.
Jenny, whose parents Maggie and Doug live on Chesham Road, said: “It was a long and stressful journey, but we’re so happy Kwesi is in his new home. Jesus the King is an amazing place and we want our fund to keep Kwesi there and help the other children. Kwesi has the heart of an angel and an infectious smile. He’s changed our lives.
“People might say he’s lucky to have found us but it’s the other way around.”
Jenny is running the Wilmslow Half Marathon on Sunday, March 22. Go to thekwesifund.com for information.
