We've been quiet but busy. Joanne traveled to Malawi and is back with stories and updates for all our loyal supporters . . .
A STORY FOR APRIL: Mr and Mrs Makobola live in a village on the outskirts of Lilongwe. Mr Makobola is a carpenter and supports the family by taking small construction jobs, which are often short term. He builds homes, and schools and lives with his family of eight in a house of unbaked bricks. The Makobolas had three children. Their oldest daughter, age nine, is epileptic and years of poorly controlled seizures have resulted in brain damage. She is a friendly and loving child but does not speak and despite having a younger sister and brother has been the baby of the family for years. Mr Makobola earns little money, but is an exceptionally dedicated husband and father, so when his wife delivered triplets late last year they were welcomed into an impoverished but loving home. Resources were stretched a bit further to accommodate the new babies. Now the family often eats one simple meal per day and needs of three growing babies long ago outpaced Mrs Makobola’s breast milk production. In spite of this, triplets are beautiful chubby healthy little girls. They are the pride of the family. The entire family participates in their care and Mr Makobola says that even if the rest of the family goes hungry they will make sure there is enough for the babies. Beatrice visits the family regularly, assessing the babies, providing health education, and supplemental formula. When we visited in February as Beatrice talked with the parents, Mrs Makobola breastfed two of the babies and Mr Makobola tickled the third who squealed with glee.
Last year 26 sets of triplets were delivered at Bwaila Hospital. Triplets in Malawi always face numerous risks which threaten their survival. Usually they are born premature and are very small. Usually women do not produce enough breast milk to support their growth. And, usually families do not have money to supplement the mother’s milk with formula. Joyful Motherhood (the Malawian sister nonprofit of AMHI) tries to enroll all the triplets delivered at Bwaila who will live within Lilongwe District in order to provide support to families in the form of assessments, health education, supplemental formula and community mobilization. In the future we would like to provide maize and legumes to breastfeeding mothers of triplets to improve their diet and hopefully increase their production of breast milk.
(you can read the story of the woman in our featured picture on my blog http://www.babycatching.blogspot.com/)
UPDATES
We are currently supporting the home based care of 112 babies with the $25,000 you donated in 2009. We also received a grant of $25,000 from the Abbott Foundation in December 2009 to increase the number of high risk mothers we follow. This money will provide 6 postpartum visits to 60 high risk moms in 2010. At this point Joyful Mother is visiting 30 mothers who experienced difficult deliveries followed by extended hospitalizations. This includes women who are severely anemic, women recovering from eclampsia, and women recovering uterine rupture and other critical illnesses.
FEEDBACK FROM MEN IN THE VILLAGES: When nurses travel to the villages and provide health education they always welcome the participation of men. The nurses also work with community leaders (many of whom are men) to create plans to transport women and children to the hospital in the case of an emergency. Men are not usually included in the sphere of health care for women and children and they have been very enthusiastic about this inclusion. Several have told the nurses, "Now that I know what danger signs to look for I will make sure to help get them to the hospital when they need to go." Just as we suspected, men want to be included in the care of their wives and children. People all over the world do the best they can to care for their loved ones. Part of providing holistic care for women and children is including the whole community in the provision of that care.
A STATE-SIDE VISIT: Beatrice Namaleu our star nurse who keeps things running in Malawi received a grant to sponsor her attendance to the Women Deliver Conference in Washington DC from June 6-9 www.womendeliver.org. She will be in the US for two weeks - one week in DC and one week in Texas. If anyone in DC or Austin would be interested in meeting her and hearing stories about her work in Malawi please email africanmothers@gmail.com
TAKE INITIATIVE. We are thrilled to see our number of supporters growing. Not everyone has a lot of money or time to donate but everyone has a voice and can spread the word. If we continue to share the responsibility of supporting these moms and babies we can keep this initiative alive. For those of you who want to donate please consider a monthly donation through www.JustGive.org
We estimate that it costs a little over $1 a day per mother or baby we support. We are doing our best and stretching resources but we are still missing many infants in Lilongwe. Our goal is to reach all orphaned infants in Lilongwe, and eventually all triplets, premature babies, babies with disabilities, and high risk postpartum moms. Please help us reach our goal.
DID YOU KNOW?? Almost 50% of nursing posts in Malawi are vacant. This is an EXTREME nursing shortage. There is no short term solution for this problem but we are doing our part to ensure that the work we support does not add to the burden. We at AMHI support hiring practices which do not recruit nurses away from the public sector. Joyful Motherhood only hires retired nurses for full-time positions and offers per diem positions to nurses who work full-time in the public sector. Our objective is to supplement the public health sector with the care and follow up provided.
THANK YOU: It is because of you that this important work is going on in Malawi!!!
We appreciate hearing from you. Write us with your thoughts and reflections africanmothers@gmail.com.
