Every week we visit the feeding centre in Soroti Hospital, we bring some nutritional supplement, we talk with the care takers, who are there sometimes for months, caring for the child. We met little Martha, the baby on the picture above. She was cared for by her mother, a 16 year old teenager. Her family seems not too supportive, the young girl was really struggling with the baby. The baby was severe malnourished, her weight was only 1.8 kg in October, when the baby was already 6 weeks old. We met Martha and her mother many times, as they stayed in the feeding centre since September 2016. On Monday, we got a phone call from the Social worker from Soroti hospital. He asked us to help with baby Martha. The mother is giving up, she can't cope with the situation any more, they feared the safety of the baby. Simon went to the hospital to talk and later on we went to pick Martha. We had also a good talk with the mother, she will be coming twice a week to Amecet to spend time with her baby. Simon went the next day to her home in the village to talk with her parents and we think that this is the best solution for now. It is not good to get the baby away from the mother, but in this case I think it is the best solution we can come with. The baby is 5,5 months old and her weight is only 2.9 kg. She doesn't suck from the bottle, so we need to feed her by NG tube, it is a cute little girl and this morning she gave us a beautiful smile!!!
Mary was brought to us in the beginning of January 2017. Her mother died from HIV/AIDS in the beginning of December and the first HIV test they did on her , was positive, she was started on ARV's. She was brought by an auntie and was very malnourished and very "floppy", she could hardly keep her head up. She is 5,5 months old, but her weight is now 5 kg. (she is the same age as Martha). We have been busy with her, because at first we needed her to get strength and to gain weight. Now she is 5 kg, we started to look at her other problems..... we think that she is blind and deaf..... So we took her to the eye doctor in the hospital and he also thinks she is blind and deaf, he send us to the pediatrician. We took Mary to the pediatrician and she looked good at Mary and was not sure, she sometimes react if you put suddenly a bright light on her eye. We were advised to take her to the eye hospital in Tororo (3 hours drive) and also to go for a heart ultrasound. We did the ultrasound and there they told us that there is a small hole in the heart, but it might still close by it self... Next week we will go to the eye hospital..... maybe they have some good news for us????
In front of Amecet we planted 15 years ago a nice tree. It gives nice flowers (and a lot of leaves on the ground!) It has grown out in a big tree, I like the tree, the way it has grown, but....... the roots are going towards the staff house. And we are taking the tree down. On that place we will build a round shelter, where we can sit in the shade with the children. On the small picture, you see the shelter from Amun home, a similar hut we will build now in Amecet. I still feel sorry about the nice tree, but sometimes you have to give things up when you want to get development.....
No comments:
Post a Comment