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.
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| 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.”
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| 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!”
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| 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.
