Last year Tisho, the director, received a call from relatives. His cousin had had a baby girl but she wasn't doing well. She was losing weight, barely hanging on and all of the clinics his cousin Grace visited told her the same thing - just keep nursing. The problem was Grace wasn't able to produce enough milk to feed her daughter Glory and no one at the clinics was listening to her.
Everyone had given up and was waiting for Glory to die except for one aunt who remembered that Tisho helps newborns. She called and asked if the orphanage could help. Grace and her family didn't have money for formula. Even if they could afford it, properly preparing and sterilizing the bottles would be very difficult where she lived.
In our area of Tanzania there aren't any NGOs that help provide formula and training in how to prepare it to families. There weren't any other options available to help save Glory's life. Tisho went to pick up Grace and Glory and bring them back to Berega. He doubted whether or not she would even survive the 2.5 hour trip to Berega. His goal was to bring Glory straight to our hospital in Berega for help. He had a staff member ready at the road with a bottle when he passed the orphanage on the way to the hospital.
By God's grace Glory survived. She has continued to grow and thrive to such an extent that any family who sees her now cannot believe how far she's come. Grace and Glory's story brought a new need to our attention - mother's who cannot produce the needed milk to keep their babies alive. The orphanage's mission has always been to step in when families are in crisis to keep a vulnerable newborn alive. This new area of ministry fits in perfectly with that.
We are busy trying to get the word out to area churches, hospitals and clinics that we also now provide services for mother's without breastmilk and their babies. At the end of of March our second mother, Harriet, joined us with her son Daudi. A staff member, Daniel, was at the hospital checking on one of our toddlers when he met them. Daudi was 3 months old and weighed less than 7 pounds.
Daudi was discharged to the orphanage where he moved in with his mother. Daudi is growing and doing well. Harriet has never had the chance to go to school. While she is with us she will be joining the literacy and math classes. She's started learning to bake and decorate cakes and this summer will join the sewing class. She is excited for the opportunities that are being provided for her to learn and relieved that she now has help for her son.
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