Malnutrition is a BIG problem….

 For the many of the children here and in other developing countries.  This week we had a young boy, 11 months old who came in for an abdominal hernia.  The day he was due to be discharged, I went to check on him and found him to be malnourished.  He also has a twin sister, but she is much healthier.  Many times patients want to be discharged as quickly as possible as they cannot afford to pay for a long stay.  I spoke with the mother and a friend of hers about the concerns I had for the child.  His name is Benic.  I encouraged her to stay 4-5 more days to see if we could get his weight up.  A normal 11 month old should weigh around 19 pounds,  Benic weighed 12.5 pounds when I first saw him.  After 5 days of high calorie diet which included “Plumpy Nut”, which is protein high peanut butter, he weight 14.5 pounds.  He looked much better and so we let them go home.  He will follow-up with us at our malnutrition clinic next Thursday, May 3rd.  Let us all pray he continues to increase his weight.

(I am not good at taking pictures.  I feel it is intrusive.  I will try to do better,  it is just that I usually am talking and working and forget those photos.  I pray you will understand if I don’t have a picture of every patient I see.)

We are planning to break ground on the building of a new surgical center tomorrow.  We have had a generous donor provide the funding for this up-grade.  This surgical center will be bigger and hopefully, more sterile than what we currently have.  We will have pre-op and post-op rooms which we currently do not have.  I will take pictures as we work toward this new goal.  Oh my!  I was just informed they have broken ground today on the new surgery!  See picture below:


This shows how much bigger the area will be than what we currently have.

When I arrived here in 2013, one of the first things I did was to replace some of the mattresses at the hospital.  They were in terrible shape!  Well it has been 9 years since we replaced them and they are again in great need of replacing.  A couple of weeks ago, I asked the Matron (Head Nurse) if there was anything they really needed and she mentioned mattresses first thing.  I think I will use some of the work- funds you have kindly donated and purchase some mattresses in May.  I know I don’t have enough to replace them all, but if we do some every month, maybe we can replace them all buy the end of the year.


Wouldn’t you like to sleep on this or put your child on it?

There are many things which need to be improved here at the hospital.  How to document properly in the computer.  How to maintain good supply records and encourage better performance.  I am sure you hear this at your jobs to a certain degree.  I want to encourage the improved behavior without being negative all the time.  So many years ago, I had bulletin boards built in order to post some positive feedback.  I have just started this week and so hope to fill the board up soon with pictures of those who are striving to do better.


Sorry about some of the pictures.  A photographer I am not.  Thanks for your continued support and encouragement.  I appreciate you all and this work.

May God Bless us as we do this mission work!


Location: P7Q3+69 Parewanui, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FAREWELL TO CHIMALA MISSION

Image
Today, I post my last post to this blog site.   I am extremely sad to have to do this.  Chimala Mission, especially the Chimala community, have been my family and friends for the last 6 years.  I came to Chimala believing God wanted me to help this community with the talents He has blessed me with.  Chimala Mission was an existing mission where I could help both the mission and the community.  My plans were to be there in this work for many years, even possibly the rest of my life. Unfortunately, the situation at the mission changed and my plans were then not my own.  I am back in Oklahoma where I will put my life back together and find a job.  I will also see what God holds for me next.  Even when things go badly wrong or we get knocked off our path, God is in control!  He will and can change an unfortunate event into something Great!  We, you and I, with the help of God provided much great assistance to the Chimala community.  Many improvements were made, many were taught the Bible
Read more

OC Students leave their "mark".....

Image
On May 4th, nine students from Oklahoma Christain University (OC) in Oklahoma City, OK arrived here in Chimala.  Three of these students have been here before, but the rest were newbies.  It was very exciting for me to see the returning students and to meet and get to know the new comers. The students always bring a sense of excitement and adventure with them when they come.  The goals were for the students to get to know a little about the culture, become familiar with all the works of the mission, hold VBS at several of the small village churches and complete a project which would help one of the works at the mission.  The bus ride from Dar Es Salaam to Chimala Mission is a hard 12-14 hour drive by bus.  We left Dar at 5am and arrived at the mission around 7:30pm.  During the trip, the students were able to see miles of plains, mountains and small villages.  They also had a small glimpse of some of the animals of Tanzania as we drove through Mikumi National Park.  This time o
Read more

From Tanzania to Oregon

Image
The support for the work I do at Chimala Mission comes from many people and many places in the United States.  Most of those who send financial support do not know me personally and neither do I know them.  There is one person who sends support from Oregon.  Just before I left to come visit the states, this lady contacted me to see if I would be interested in visiting her in Oregon.  She told me that she would like to help me raise support by setting me up with places to speak. At first, I didn't think I could make the time to go all the way to Oregon...I have family to spend time with, I am already making two trip to Texas to meet people and speak, I have several presentations to do in Oklahoma City/Edmond.  There just wouldn't be time.....or would there? God puts people in our lives for different reasons.  Could this be a door He is opening for me and the Chimala work?  I spend 11 months away from my family, but my dad sat down with me and told me he didn't think I sh
Read more