When I started my training with this ministry I was moved by the realization that 40,000 children die every day from complications of malnutrition and 32,000 die of preventable diseases. I knew those numbers had faces all around the world and wanted to go myself to the area of most need.
Fast forward to 2006 - almost 3 years later. I stare down at a hospital bed containing a 15 month old whose body is burning with fever. She’s on a ventilator and her blood gases show us she’s still in respiratory acidosis. Just months early she was diagnosed with primary complex tuberculosis and the doctors say she has early signs of asthma. Her x-rays show her lungs are full of fluid from pneumonia. [We rented the ventilator from a private company since the family was sitting up having to manually ventilate…such a different world.]
I was the first one to look into her eyes when she came into the world. As her mom’s midwife I got to be the first one to hold her. Throughout her little life so far I’ve visited the family in their little squatter “house” in the damp alley crawling with worms. We’ve tried to do what we can to help the parents find work, get rice, help facilitate obtaining a floor. Still there are cycles of injustices and hardship that make things difficult.
So as I stand at the bed and the doctor reminds me this is one of the leading causes of death in kids around here I realize I’m looking into the eyes of one of those 32,000- 40,000 children. Suddenly the answers don’t seem so clear and that little question “why” tries to pop up again. Should she walk through this, what will be next? Will she be able to fight off future infections, or will this just be a cycle. Will her dad break the cycle of alcohol addiction? [Baby Cassandra was recently released from the hospital, but has recently been readmitted to the top government pediatric hospital for respiratory problems again].
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