14/2-09 at 07.55 by: linda
Boy David
This week has been very varied with visits to the village and some hospital activity. I have committed to working with Beatrix one or two days a week. Beatrix is a retired nurse/midwife and works for a feeding programme for orphans started by an American midwife Joanne whom I had met on my first visit 2006.
We follow up orphans when they leave Bwaila and go back to the village with their guardian. We give milk and support where it is needed.
On Wednesday we visited David who is now one year old but is only 5kilos in weight and half the size he should be. David was born weighing 1.1kilo to a mother who had a very grim psychiatric history. She died in a psychiatric ward and there were a few terrible thoughts on how and why she had died.
The village was many kilometres off the main road, as most of them are, through maize fields, potholes and mud. We had picked up maize, ground nuts and soya beans as Beatix was going to show the grandmother, David’s guardian, how to make a nutritious porridge called phala for David. On our way we also collected the bicycle man to show us where to go. Normally Beatix gets a mini bus to the main drop off and hires a man and a bike who takes her through the fields to the village. This would be the normal form of transport for Beatrix and takes her all day to do one visit. When we eventually reached the village we were warmly welcomed and Beatix set about building the fire and making the porridge adding green pumpkin leaves to give extra vitamins.
Meanwhile I observed David and noticed immediately he had one very swollen eye and both eyes had a purulent green discharge which was frequently been wiped by the grandmother with the corner of her filthy chitenge. Many flies hovered over his eyes and some were landing and sticking to the discharge.
His temperature was 37.6 and he was very grizzly. He was starving and undernourished and ate the porridge vigorously while the grandmother fed him with her finger, he would not take a spoon. I said we had to take David to a clinic today for eye treatment, it could not be left. After an hour or so, Beatix, the grandmother, David, the bicycle man and I all got back into the car and set off to the nearest clinic.
This clinic was on the way back to Lilongwe, so we dropped off the bicycle man who would take the grandmother back to the village later when she arrived after the mini bus dropped her off after the visit. The clinic was about a 45 minute drive and when we arrived I recognised that I had been there before with Jean the first week I had arrived.
The one clinical officer in the Chiedzi Clinic, Dr Frances Njewa recognised me and we were taken immediately. He was so very kind and gentle with David and the grandmother and prescribed, gentamicin eye drops, paracetamol and amoxicillin. It was all explained how and when to give the medicine to David and how to clean the eyes. He had his first dose there and then. The grandmother was then counselled re HIV because the mother’s statis was unknown and she was a high risk case. This could be reason for David being so malnourished. However both were negative which was blessing. I then took the grandmother to the main road gave her money for the bus and the bicycle man and we said we would visit next week.
On Thursday we visited the twins who were discharged from the Nursery a week ago. I drove 385 kilometres and after a lot of asking people directions to this village we arrived in a clearing after abandoning the car in a field and walking the rest of the way. The grandmother was the guardian but the father Mr Moyo was also there. He lived many kilometres away with his two other sets of twins, 10 years and 3 years. The babies were being well looked after and had put on weight. We encouraged Mr Moyo to take his mother to live with him for a few months so he and the other children could help and support her after school finished at 1pm. Mr Moyo was a school teacher.
We left 12 tins of baby milk behind and extra cups and headed back to the car. We received a box of bananas and a live chicken which went in a Shoprite polythene bag. The chicken sat quietly between Beatrix legs with its head sticking out the top of the bag. Needless to say we shared the bananas and Beatrix took the chicken home.
Yesterday we visited a little orphan boy called Brian who lived with his grandmother. He again was very small for being 7 months old. In this case he was HIV positive and on Anti Retroviral Treatment. The grandmother was also suspected to be HIV positive. We weighed him and Beatrix gave advice on feeding. He was alert and had a big smile. He appeared stimulated and to be developing normally apart from his growth, he weighed only 5.5 kilos.
The triplets are still in the nursery but the smallest triplet is very unwell .Thankfully now she is on a drip and getting nasal gastric feeding. I was shocked when I saw the baby after two days of not eating, she looked so starved and had lost so much weight, which, when you weigh just over 1.4 kilo can look very frightening. The grandmother is still looking after the twins but not getting the input from the staff. There are usually only one or at the most two midwives on a day or night shift and often one will work a double shift to cover. So you can imagine with ill babies, new babies being admitted and orphans there is little time to spare and not a lot of energy for work.
Finally at the beginning of the week the Comic Relief team arrived at Bwaila. Davina McCall (from Big Brother) was the interviewer but the main aim of their trip was maternal mortality and so they were following up a family in a village after the hospital. There were about 10 in the team which included a representative from The White Ribbon Alliance- Safe Motherhood, photographers and camera men. It was all very busy. Davina was lovely and we had long chats in the nursery where she fell in love with the little single orphan whom she named Oscar. I showed her how to cup feed him and he got lots of cuddles. When I met the team on the Tuesday they knew who I was immediately as they were told to look out for me from Sarah Brown who heads the White Ribbon Alliance. It felt really strange that they knew all about the work we had done and were here first hand to see life at its rawest. Comic Relief is being televised sometime in March.
We follow up orphans when they leave Bwaila and go back to the village with their guardian. We give milk and support where it is needed.
On Wednesday we visited David who is now one year old but is only 5kilos in weight and half the size he should be. David was born weighing 1.1kilo to a mother who had a very grim psychiatric history. She died in a psychiatric ward and there were a few terrible thoughts on how and why she had died.
The village was many kilometres off the main road, as most of them are, through maize fields, potholes and mud. We had picked up maize, ground nuts and soya beans as Beatix was going to show the grandmother, David’s guardian, how to make a nutritious porridge called phala for David. On our way we also collected the bicycle man to show us where to go. Normally Beatix gets a mini bus to the main drop off and hires a man and a bike who takes her through the fields to the village. This would be the normal form of transport for Beatrix and takes her all day to do one visit. When we eventually reached the village we were warmly welcomed and Beatix set about building the fire and making the porridge adding green pumpkin leaves to give extra vitamins.
Meanwhile I observed David and noticed immediately he had one very swollen eye and both eyes had a purulent green discharge which was frequently been wiped by the grandmother with the corner of her filthy chitenge. Many flies hovered over his eyes and some were landing and sticking to the discharge.
His temperature was 37.6 and he was very grizzly. He was starving and undernourished and ate the porridge vigorously while the grandmother fed him with her finger, he would not take a spoon. I said we had to take David to a clinic today for eye treatment, it could not be left. After an hour or so, Beatix, the grandmother, David, the bicycle man and I all got back into the car and set off to the nearest clinic.
This clinic was on the way back to Lilongwe, so we dropped off the bicycle man who would take the grandmother back to the village later when she arrived after the mini bus dropped her off after the visit. The clinic was about a 45 minute drive and when we arrived I recognised that I had been there before with Jean the first week I had arrived.
The one clinical officer in the Chiedzi Clinic, Dr Frances Njewa recognised me and we were taken immediately. He was so very kind and gentle with David and the grandmother and prescribed, gentamicin eye drops, paracetamol and amoxicillin. It was all explained how and when to give the medicine to David and how to clean the eyes. He had his first dose there and then. The grandmother was then counselled re HIV because the mother’s statis was unknown and she was a high risk case. This could be reason for David being so malnourished. However both were negative which was blessing. I then took the grandmother to the main road gave her money for the bus and the bicycle man and we said we would visit next week.
On Thursday we visited the twins who were discharged from the Nursery a week ago. I drove 385 kilometres and after a lot of asking people directions to this village we arrived in a clearing after abandoning the car in a field and walking the rest of the way. The grandmother was the guardian but the father Mr Moyo was also there. He lived many kilometres away with his two other sets of twins, 10 years and 3 years. The babies were being well looked after and had put on weight. We encouraged Mr Moyo to take his mother to live with him for a few months so he and the other children could help and support her after school finished at 1pm. Mr Moyo was a school teacher.
We left 12 tins of baby milk behind and extra cups and headed back to the car. We received a box of bananas and a live chicken which went in a Shoprite polythene bag. The chicken sat quietly between Beatrix legs with its head sticking out the top of the bag. Needless to say we shared the bananas and Beatrix took the chicken home.
Yesterday we visited a little orphan boy called Brian who lived with his grandmother. He again was very small for being 7 months old. In this case he was HIV positive and on Anti Retroviral Treatment. The grandmother was also suspected to be HIV positive. We weighed him and Beatrix gave advice on feeding. He was alert and had a big smile. He appeared stimulated and to be developing normally apart from his growth, he weighed only 5.5 kilos.
The triplets are still in the nursery but the smallest triplet is very unwell .Thankfully now she is on a drip and getting nasal gastric feeding. I was shocked when I saw the baby after two days of not eating, she looked so starved and had lost so much weight, which, when you weigh just over 1.4 kilo can look very frightening. The grandmother is still looking after the twins but not getting the input from the staff. There are usually only one or at the most two midwives on a day or night shift and often one will work a double shift to cover. So you can imagine with ill babies, new babies being admitted and orphans there is little time to spare and not a lot of energy for work.
Finally at the beginning of the week the Comic Relief team arrived at Bwaila. Davina McCall (from Big Brother) was the interviewer but the main aim of their trip was maternal mortality and so they were following up a family in a village after the hospital. There were about 10 in the team which included a representative from The White Ribbon Alliance- Safe Motherhood, photographers and camera men. It was all very busy. Davina was lovely and we had long chats in the nursery where she fell in love with the little single orphan whom she named Oscar. I showed her how to cup feed him and he got lots of cuddles. When I met the team on the Tuesday they knew who I was immediately as they were told to look out for me from Sarah Brown who heads the White Ribbon Alliance. It felt really strange that they knew all about the work we had done and were here first hand to see life at its rawest. Comic Relief is being televised sometime in March.
24/2-09 at 09.44 by: Catriona Douglas (catriona.douglas@astrazeneca.com)
Dear Linda, you are doing a marvelous job and I really admire all that you are going. Keep up the great work. Thinking of you and Ian lots. Love Catriona