10/5-09 at 15.44 by: linda
Deep, sad but true
9th May.
Everyday is challenging, emotionally, culturally and geographically. I am becoming more accepting of what is possible, what I can do so I can sleep at night and what I have to accept is going to end sadly. It can be very frustrating, exasperating and difficult.
What I have learnt is not to expect these Malawian people to think like us. In fact try and think like them. Hand to mouth, day by day survival, and poverty like none of us have ever experienced or are ever likely to and remembering life is cheap.
Yesterday was hard. We went to visit the four month old triplets whom we had taken home when I first came to Malawi. This was our fifth home visit and it had been a month since we were last in the village. It took an hour and a half to get there and the roads were passable but dusty.
Thank goodness all three were alive I had been worried, but one of them was failing to thrive. Chisomo was the second triplet and had only gained 25 grams in a month and weighed 2.5kgs.
The grandmother was not coping and had very little support from the babies’ father. She had no soap to wash the clothes- they were all hanging dirty on lines in the hut. She told us he sells charcoal and spends the money on beer!
We had to take Chisomo to hospital or to leave her would eventually end in her death in the next two weeks. Beatrice communicated all this to the grandmother who was unhappy about leaving the other babies to the son to look after. There was another mother who would help out and who we could see was supportive. The grandmother of course does not know her age but must be in her late sixties and she herself is not in good health.
We left her at the nearest health centre about an hour’s drive where there was a ward for malnourished children and a doctor. I bought soap, a basin to wash clothes and a bowl for the grandmother’s food which the hospital would provide and gave her money for transport. It was difficult to leave the poor women who works hard and does her best for the babies. We have to try and find a way of perhaps taking the babies into the orphanage for a few months to give the grandmother a rest and to give the babies a chance of life. At it stands at the moment all three babies could die within their first year. Remember three hourly feeds, nurturing, infection control are what we take for granted to keep these babies alive. This grandmother cannot tell the time- the babies were starving when we arrived and in wet, dirty clothes with many flies swarming around their wee faces.
It is very hard to get any kind of emotion from these women. You can feel and see sadness and sorrow but I never see anger, frustration, confrontation and rarely a question is asked. Acceptance that is what it is.
On a happier note the second MUMs feeding station opened on the 29th of April at 2pm. Mary Donohoe was able to attend. She was here for a business week with the Rose Project who had built the new District Bwaila Hospital. There were at least 130 children all eating Phala many just appearing for the occasion and not on the list. All 100 children were weighed and the volunteers helped dish out the porridge. I went around giving each child some vitamin syrup on their spoon. It was a great occasion and the chief said very gracious thanks for our support.
I had a meeting with UNICEF this week to tell them that I had set up two feeding stations and to link in with what we were doing and to use any facilities such as malnutrition policies and guidelines we could follow, with help and support from their fieldworkers. It was a successful meeting and I hope to go out in the next two weeks with Beatrice and a nutritionalist from the Lilongwe District from the charity Concern to show her the two programmes.
On my last blog I visited a baby called Grace after a very long drive. We saw her and the grandmother on the Friday and we learnt she had died on the Monday. I could not believe it .The grandmother had not been feeding her enough and this was all explained to her. Grace was not ill just small and needed regular feeding. I think many of these situations little effort is made from the family/village to keep these babies alive if the mother is dead. It is hard but realistic and a moral dilemma.
I went out last Tuesday with two of the nuns to help in a clinic in Likuni in the same area as our feeding station. 245 women, children and a few men turned up with ailments and complaints where we handed out antibiotics, iron tablets, painkillers, cough mixture and worming tablets, all donated from Germany.
Florence and Florida the twins are doing well and gaining weight.
Ivy is out of hospital and I gather recovered from malaria, we will visit next week.
We visited new triplets who had been discharged from Bwaila. Thankfully the mother is alive and we are just supplementing with some formula.
When Oscar was born as a premature baby he had a slightly large head. There was always a suspicion of perhaps he had hydrocephalus and this week I saw a big difference in the head circumference. He has been referred to the main central hospital but missed the last appointment so we tried to emphasise how important it was to attend. Hopefully the family will take him on Monday.
On Wednesday I visited ‘my ‘village and the women were over the moon with the knitting which my Mum had started on three different knitting needles and they were quick to learn. The lemon sponge cake I had made in a big roasting tin went down a treat. We saw a mother feed her child flour and water mixed. Beatrice is going to do a cooking demonstration next time to include more vitamins and protein in their diet of maize. I have to bring some fruit and I think another cake is defiantly on the cards.
I have read through this week’s stories and there are not very happy ones. Unfortunately this is life in Malawi and one you don’t see unless you are right at the edge.
As Joanne who started the feeding programme recently wrote in her email to me, the orphans essentially go home to die. I am beginning to see this very strongly but you always hope that some of these orphans will survive because of the support we are giving the family.
"If we are lucky, we will suffer a taste of powerlessness in our own private lives. Because then things change. Then we begin to see with a gentler, broader vision and talk with a kinder tongue and feel with deeper feelings for those for whom powerlessness is a way of life." Joan Chittister
Everyday is challenging, emotionally, culturally and geographically. I am becoming more accepting of what is possible, what I can do so I can sleep at night and what I have to accept is going to end sadly. It can be very frustrating, exasperating and difficult.
What I have learnt is not to expect these Malawian people to think like us. In fact try and think like them. Hand to mouth, day by day survival, and poverty like none of us have ever experienced or are ever likely to and remembering life is cheap.
Yesterday was hard. We went to visit the four month old triplets whom we had taken home when I first came to Malawi. This was our fifth home visit and it had been a month since we were last in the village. It took an hour and a half to get there and the roads were passable but dusty.
Thank goodness all three were alive I had been worried, but one of them was failing to thrive. Chisomo was the second triplet and had only gained 25 grams in a month and weighed 2.5kgs.
The grandmother was not coping and had very little support from the babies’ father. She had no soap to wash the clothes- they were all hanging dirty on lines in the hut. She told us he sells charcoal and spends the money on beer!
We had to take Chisomo to hospital or to leave her would eventually end in her death in the next two weeks. Beatrice communicated all this to the grandmother who was unhappy about leaving the other babies to the son to look after. There was another mother who would help out and who we could see was supportive. The grandmother of course does not know her age but must be in her late sixties and she herself is not in good health.
We left her at the nearest health centre about an hour’s drive where there was a ward for malnourished children and a doctor. I bought soap, a basin to wash clothes and a bowl for the grandmother’s food which the hospital would provide and gave her money for transport. It was difficult to leave the poor women who works hard and does her best for the babies. We have to try and find a way of perhaps taking the babies into the orphanage for a few months to give the grandmother a rest and to give the babies a chance of life. At it stands at the moment all three babies could die within their first year. Remember three hourly feeds, nurturing, infection control are what we take for granted to keep these babies alive. This grandmother cannot tell the time- the babies were starving when we arrived and in wet, dirty clothes with many flies swarming around their wee faces.
It is very hard to get any kind of emotion from these women. You can feel and see sadness and sorrow but I never see anger, frustration, confrontation and rarely a question is asked. Acceptance that is what it is.
On a happier note the second MUMs feeding station opened on the 29th of April at 2pm. Mary Donohoe was able to attend. She was here for a business week with the Rose Project who had built the new District Bwaila Hospital. There were at least 130 children all eating Phala many just appearing for the occasion and not on the list. All 100 children were weighed and the volunteers helped dish out the porridge. I went around giving each child some vitamin syrup on their spoon. It was a great occasion and the chief said very gracious thanks for our support.
I had a meeting with UNICEF this week to tell them that I had set up two feeding stations and to link in with what we were doing and to use any facilities such as malnutrition policies and guidelines we could follow, with help and support from their fieldworkers. It was a successful meeting and I hope to go out in the next two weeks with Beatrice and a nutritionalist from the Lilongwe District from the charity Concern to show her the two programmes.
On my last blog I visited a baby called Grace after a very long drive. We saw her and the grandmother on the Friday and we learnt she had died on the Monday. I could not believe it .The grandmother had not been feeding her enough and this was all explained to her. Grace was not ill just small and needed regular feeding. I think many of these situations little effort is made from the family/village to keep these babies alive if the mother is dead. It is hard but realistic and a moral dilemma.
I went out last Tuesday with two of the nuns to help in a clinic in Likuni in the same area as our feeding station. 245 women, children and a few men turned up with ailments and complaints where we handed out antibiotics, iron tablets, painkillers, cough mixture and worming tablets, all donated from Germany.
Florence and Florida the twins are doing well and gaining weight.
Ivy is out of hospital and I gather recovered from malaria, we will visit next week.
We visited new triplets who had been discharged from Bwaila. Thankfully the mother is alive and we are just supplementing with some formula.
When Oscar was born as a premature baby he had a slightly large head. There was always a suspicion of perhaps he had hydrocephalus and this week I saw a big difference in the head circumference. He has been referred to the main central hospital but missed the last appointment so we tried to emphasise how important it was to attend. Hopefully the family will take him on Monday.
On Wednesday I visited ‘my ‘village and the women were over the moon with the knitting which my Mum had started on three different knitting needles and they were quick to learn. The lemon sponge cake I had made in a big roasting tin went down a treat. We saw a mother feed her child flour and water mixed. Beatrice is going to do a cooking demonstration next time to include more vitamins and protein in their diet of maize. I have to bring some fruit and I think another cake is defiantly on the cards.
I have read through this week’s stories and there are not very happy ones. Unfortunately this is life in Malawi and one you don’t see unless you are right at the edge.
As Joanne who started the feeding programme recently wrote in her email to me, the orphans essentially go home to die. I am beginning to see this very strongly but you always hope that some of these orphans will survive because of the support we are giving the family.
"If we are lucky, we will suffer a taste of powerlessness in our own private lives. Because then things change. Then we begin to see with a gentler, broader vision and talk with a kinder tongue and feel with deeper feelings for those for whom powerlessness is a way of life." Joan Chittister
11/5-09 at 13.43 by: Gillian Smith (gillian.smith@rcm.org.uk)
We had a debate in the Scottish Parliament last week around MDG 5 on International Day of the Midwife. Malawi was talked about a lot and Jack McConnell said if you want to know about it to go to your webpage and read your blog. Gill Allan had come home with photos from her last visit and there you were. Hope you are both well and I know your visitors will keep you cheery. I remain in awe and humbled by what you are doing.