Epilepsy

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...The king will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "

Matthew 25:35,36,40.

They are often attacked, have seizures, convulsions, trembling, foaming in their mouths, are occasionally thrown in unwanted places and left with permanently weak bodies and scars. They should be going to school or be engaged in active farming but it is impossible due to their predicament. They are often left to grow up uneducated and have to beg for a living. They are the victims of epilepsy in Ghana.


In the area that we live and work, a lot of children and adults are suffering from epilepsy. This disease leaves hundreds of people hopeless as they face a life of disability in a part of the world with scarce resources for treatments and rehabilitation. For about five years now, the German Institute for Medical Mission (DIFAEM), under the auspices of Dr. Bernd Weigand, and our church (the Bible Church of Africa) have been consistently supplying and administering Phenytoin (a drug used in the treatment/reduction of the impact of epileptic attacks) to about 80 patients in and around Yendi. Over the years most of the patients’ health and situations have improved.


Below are the stories of two patients who have received the epilepsy treatments:

“My name is Fuseini Alidu, I am thirty five years of age, I have had this disease since childhood. I had suffered a lot until I came into contact with the church who introduced me to the Phenytoin drugs for medication. I used to have three attacks in a month. The mode of attack has been that I begin to feel bodily pains, sudden dizziness and eventually I collapse. This happens to me regardless of where I am or what I am doing. For example it can happen by an open fire, on the road or in the bathroom. As a result I have sores all over my body and was not able to ride a bicycle, do any farming or sit among my peers for the fear of attacks. But thank God that in the two years since I started taking the medication I have not experienced any attack, I am quite healthy and can even work in my farm now. To DIFAEM and Dr. Bernd I wish you were her for me to give you yams (a kind of potato) from my farm to show my joy and for the improved health status you have given me, I am grateful”.

Abdulai Alhassan says, “I am twenty two years of age. For five years I have been suffering from epilepsy. I used to have frequent attacks - at least three attacks in a week. I was compelled to be a lazy person, always depending on others for my basic needs and sometimes even begging. I could not do any hard work or step on the wet ground. Since I started taking the medication last year there has been a great improvement, I have had only two attacks. I can now farm, eat well and am now physical fit for any kind of work. I thank God that your medicine is not only helping me to be healthy, but it was through the supply of this medicine that I became a Christian - for the love and compassion of the Christians were so compelling”.

We might want to ask ourselves whether simply distributing Bibles or gospel messages would have had as great/much impact on the hearts and minds of these patients as distributing /supplying Phenytoin sodium has had.


Thank God for:

• The support from the people in Germany in treating these patients
• The testimony of the church in practically assisting the people in their environment

Please pray for:

• The Church – that it will always be ready to assist people in need and so show the love of Christ in the community
• The sick –access to health facilities are very limited and there is a real need for more health personnel
• For health – for us as a family, as we continue to fall sick with malaria, colds and infections