Monday 13 November 2017

Basankusu: Poverty is the cause of malnutrition

Some of our helpers’ children played on the ground while those being treated for malnutrition stared aimlessly into space. Similarly, their parents looked bored and there was little in the way of conversation taking place. On the other side of our fence, a woman was wailing and crying – her little boy had died; the wake was in the garden next door. Childhood deaths are a common occurrence here and malnutrition is only one of the causes.
Mama José - our nurse

We gave the children their corn and peanut porridge, while I wondered how we could possibly continue with so few donations being sent at present. I asked Mama José, our nurse, why so many children become malnourished.

“Poverty is the number one cause,” she replied without hesitation. “Having too many children and not enough money to feed them with is very common here.”

She went on to describe how a mother would try to feed a large family with about forty pence a day.
“She can give them all something to eat – but it won’t have enough energy or protein in it,” she continued. “The choice of food is very limited here, and a lot don’t know the value of eating fruit and vegetables. Other children become malnourished when the mother is expecting another baby, even though the first one isn’t yet weaned – they wouldn’t stand a chance if this centre wasn’t here.”
Another reason she told me was when children have diarrhoea, or worms. “They lose so much weight that just eating the local food just can’t put the weight back on them – it just fills them up, but doesn’t help them at all.”
Francis Hannaway getting kids checked at the hospital

I thought about the little boy who had died next door, and then about the children at my centre. In the last week, two children had died after coming to us too late. Corrupt government leaves nothing for the needy. Poverty is also caused by ignorance about the right foods to eat. I thought about those children who had died because they happened to have been born into such poor conditions, and the emptiness it must leave in each of their families.

I was trying to cheer myself up by thinking about the 700, or more, children that we’ve put back on the road to health during the past three years, when a women arrived with a little girl.
“This is Nadia,” she said. “You treated her here last year and we’ve come to say “thank you”.”
We couldn’t believe how well she looked. “What a lovely surprise,” exclaimed Mama José. “You see, Francis, here’s living proof that our work is all worthwhile!”


Nadia - before and after
We pray for the repose of the souls of those poor children who have died because of poverty, and we rejoice in the lives of the ones who are on the road to recovery.

Basankusu: Things are looking up

I travelled from Kinshasa to Basankusu with Fr John Kirwan MHM, who had been on leave in England since just after our house fire, last year. Fr John was happy to be back in his adopted country, where he has worked as a missionary for many years. The journey, however, was less than easy. From Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, to Mbandaka, on the Equator, it took only fifty-five minutes by plane. After that, the river journey to Basankusu took three days!
Our trusty canoe with outboard

We travelled with our diocesan priests, all packed closely on blue plastic chairs in a dugout canoe, driven by a not-very-powerful outboard engine. We were happily received in several isolated village parishes along the river and got a few hours’ sleep during the two nights, on assorted mats and mattresses. It was very cramped – but we managed to keep in good spirits as we chugged along through the rainforest. Whatever hardships we met we were given the reminder: “A la guerre, comme à la guerre!”… “When at war, we live as at war!”
With the diocesan priests taking a rest on the journey

In Basankusu our house reconstruction had already begun, overseen by Fr Stan Bondoko, the third member of Mill Hill Missionaries in the Congo. Piles of white sand arrived constantly by handcart, which was then swiftly transformed into concrete bricks. After a year of washing from a bucket of rainwater, I’ll be very pleased when the house is finished and we can return to en-suite plumbing.
My nutrition centre is still firing on all cylinders. Sadly, we are treating more children than ever – yet our donations have gone down drastically. Late rains have led to a poor harvest and an only meagre appearance of the protein-rich edible caterpillars, this year. People from outlying villages are getting to hear about us, travelling great distances on foot to be treated at the centre. So, we are now treating more than fifty malnourished children, each day.

In fact, the malnutrition project is expanding. We have decided to buy a small house which is close to our Catholic hospital. It will be used for our severely malnourished children, who, as well as being fed around the clock, often need urgent medical treatment. We intend to extend it a little, replace the palm-thatch with a metal roof and install a toilet for the resident manager. We need to raise £4,000 to buy it and do it up ... and a further £4,000 to run it for the first year.
Francis Hannaway at his centre for malnourished children

Something else that I noticed, on my return, was that I didn’t get harassed by Basankusu’s immigration police this time. 

So, all things considered, things are looking up.



Email: francish7@yahoo.com 

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