Nutrition Program Needs Help....

Many of you remember my pre-twin years, when I was heavily involved in the motherless baby program. While I have been focused on Savannah and Nate for the last three years, these babies and their surrogate moms have been cared and provided for by Karen Masso, Jennifer Myhre and Stephanie Jillcott. The program has expanded and continues to grow serving not only motherless babies, but any child who is on the brink of survival. It is an amazing program and a real testament to Jesus' overwhelming love in this place. The word continues to spread about our program and the crazy "bazungu" who love children and are willing to help families provide food and medical care when things get desperate. There are many families that arrive after walking for several hours from Congo to recieve the help they need as well as many from within Bundibugyo district where we live. Unfortunately, even with some amazing generosity from multiple donors, our current funding is just not adequate to keep up with the needs of these tiny precious ones. As we look at the future and try to envision different sustainable programs that could meet the needs of these at risk children, we are confronted each month by a sea of faces that are literally starving and hungry for milk. How do we say no? The truth is we don't. We pray and hope that more support will come in to help us and we borrow money for the milk these babies desperately need. Below I have reposted a blog entry from one of our team leaders, Jennifer Myhre. It explains the situation with a bit more detail...

Well, the good news is that I did my first day of rounds on the new ward and it was so lovely. Instead of 20 patients crammed into a 10 bed ward the size of most people’s living rooms . . . They were dispersed over a 25 bed ward, each with their own bed, mattress, shelf, plenty of air, light, windows . . . Of course the fact that this motherless child has lost 2 kg since graduating at age 1 from the nutrition program and is back in desperate shape, this baby’s Kwashiorkor is related to AIDS and a severe case of malaria to boot, this mother’s family is telling me there is no one to help her, etc. does not change. The world is still a broken place, but now at least those who are suffering the most severe effects have a clean place to lay their heads. We even turned on the generator power to run an oxygen concentrator for a child who arrived gasping her last breaths . . . Blue and weak, she probably has a congenital heart defect, but the oxygen staved off death this hour at least. We could not have done that on the old ward. I’m grateful.The sad news is that the nutrition program is completely out of funding. We lost WFP food last year, and we were denied our UNICEF grant proposal this month. Stephanie rushed to get in another grant, but in the meantime Karen got milk on credit this week and we are struggling to feed about five seriously malnourished inpatient children as well as three premature babies.

I know that churches and Sunday school groups, student fellowships, etc. often look for a worthy cause. So I had the idea that if we got 12 groups to cover particular months (one takes August, another takes February) then we could manage another year while we try to work on the more sustainable aspects of the program (seeds, milking goats, an agriculture extension worker) that we’ve applied for grants to fund.

$1600 a month covers:Boxed Milk - $400 (Kwashiorkor and severe malnutrition)Formula - $400 (prematures and initial care for motherless)Breastfeeding Stipends - $400 (motherless)Peanut Butter Paste and Misc - $400 (mostly for HIV+kids)It’s a lot of money, but this budget helps about 50 kids/month at the cost of 1$/kid/day.

If anyone who reads this has a group that wants to commit to a month, let me know!

Peace and a Chicken

After a long but successful week, our students have returned and are re-settling into life at Christ School. Each of the four meetings was a further glimpse into culture here, as Kevin, our staff, parents, students and board members each spoke about the events of the last month. They talked about parenting. They talked about expectations of a quality boarding school. They talked about their own experiences as teenagers. They talked about dreams and hopes for the future. They talked about their concerns as students. They talked and talked and talked. And for the most part, Kevin just got to listen. After one of the meetings, (nearly five hours of talking and listening) Kevin came home smiling and commented that it was wonderful to just sit, not look at his watch and hear from the community. Most of the comments were very supportive of the school and with those that were not, Kevin realized that he didn't have to say a thing. In each case, one of his staff stepped forward, stood up and addressed the concern with confidence and maturity. It was one of those long answers to prayer, that the school really is moving out of its infancy. That Kevin could "just listen" and not feel that the weight was all on his shoulders to carry the school through this is a testament to how far we have come. The board of governors have advised us well and done a good job as advocates for the school within the community. The parents, as a whole, were supportive of the school and were taking their children to task for their behaviour. Our discipline committee identified eight of the ring leaders, and they were peacefully dismissed. After each of the four meetings, the whole community took a meal together and then each of the students and their representative parent signed a code of conduct. So thank you for your thoughts and prayers, life is somehow never easy here and we are grateful not to be alone.

Last but not least, one of the parents sent Kevin a chicken and a bag of potatoes to express her gratitude for the school and his leadership throughout this latest ordeal. What a wonderful gift. Nate and Savannah were so excited and spent the morning "playing with their meal." "Dat MY chicken." and "It gonna be SOOO yummy!" ...which after 45 minutes in the pressure cooker and two cups of homemade South Carolina style BBQ sauce it WAS.