THEY are just six months old. Their case is worsened by the fact that they lost their mother when they were just three months old. Their father is a young danfo driver with low income. Currently, they are cared for by their aged grandmother who sells eko (solid pap).The above scenario is the story of Taiwo and Kehinde Mudasiru both male indigenes of Oopoyeosa in Ibadan, Oyo State.Their father, Muidini Mudasiru, is a 33-year-old driver who completed his primary school education at St. Michael Primary School, Oke Seni, Ibadan in 1993. He got married to Kehinde, an Ikire indigene, who sold bread and provision and was about 25 years old at the time of her demise three months ago.Between them, they have five children ' Islamia, female who is seven years old; Taiwo (female) and Kehinde (male) who are four years old and the latest addition, the six months old male twins.The twins were about three months old when their mother, Kehinde, developed diarrhoea overnight and died. The onus, therefore, fell on their paternal grandmother, Madam Lamulatu Mudasiru, a widow, who depends solely on the sale of eko for survival, to care for them.The orphaned twins were four months old, when one of the community volunteers of Initiative for Integrated Community Welfare in Nigeria (IICWIN) at Orita merin, Ibadan identified and took their case to the monthly support meeting of the non-governmental organisation.Under the able leadership of Dr Ebunlomo Walker, the executive director, IICWIN, took up the twins' case and got them admitted at the children's ward of the State Hospital, Adeoyo, Ibadan.According to Dr Walker, the twins 'had very profuse and watery diarrhoea, were dehydrated and very hungry as they were fed with watery baby milk (ISOMIL), which was meant for older children (six months), in a very dirty feeding bottle,' when they were discovered.She, however, disclosed that IICWIN community health workers who visited the twins' home at Oritamerin area of Ibadan discovered that the area was marked by squalor, poor environmental sanitation and low levels of public and personal hygiene, adding that there were no sources of potable water and no toilets.'There was an open dumping of refuse and human waste. The chances of survival of the twins in this background were very slim,' Dr Walker disclosed.The Principal Medical Officer, Adeoyo State Hospital, Dr J.A. Olaoye, told the Nigerian Tribune that the twins suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and failure to thrive.'The children need financial assistance while the grandmother caring for them will be counselled on hygiene, feeding and the need not to give them any herbal preparation,' Dr Olaoye said.Immediately after their discharge from the hospital, IICWIN relocated the twins and their sibilings twins and their grandmother to Ibirinade Orphanage, Joyce B, Kakanfo Inn Area Ring Road, Ibadan.IICWIN and Dr Walker had been responsible for the upkeep of the four children and the grandmother to date. The burden is becoming much for the NGO and is, therefore, soliciting for assistance from members of the public.'Donations of clothes, beddings, toiletries, artificial milk, feeding utensils and cash donation which could be paid into First Bank Account No: 3053566886, Account Name: Taiwo and Kehinde Mudasiru will be welcomed,' said Dr. Walker.
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