Our Malnutrition Center Update…

We just opened our Malnutrition Center in February of this year. We have had to send so many malnourished children to the hospital here, and the need was so great. We decided to start “small” because this was a new “step of faith” for us…we did not have any monthly support for it.

With a Malnutrition Center, you must have nurses and “mommies” on 12-hour shifts, cleaners, a pediatrician, and others. This can be more complicated than one can imagine, but we are trying the give the babies the best of care. We now have six little ones full-time and twenty “out-patients” who live far in the mountains. The problem has been that the “out-patient” mothers cannot afford “moto” transportation from far back into the mountains to come to our Malnutrition Center each week with their baby. These mountains are high up with rough roads, and it takes four-wheel-drives to get there! They cannot afford to come “down from the mountain each week” to have their baby or toddler weighed, checked, and given the food to go back home.

So, we are starting a new program, sending our head “Malnutrition Center Nurse” up the mountain each Friday, and the mothers will bring their babies and meet the nurse at a certain area. Here, she will weigh them and measure them and give them exams and send them back with special formulas for their growth. (We will keep you posted in the future and take pictures of where she will be doing this. We have found a small clinic that will let us use their facility one day a week).

This little toddler you see is “Woodmaydgi Amboise.” We will be sharing this story later today. On a special note, we want to thank MAP International for all the wonderful special RUSF peanut butter food packages for malnutrition that they donated to us!! This special food is excellent for the children, and we could never afford this great gift of love!!

Thank you, partners, and God bless you, MAP International!

Sherry