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Dear
family, friends, and supporters; For
the last several days, Diane has been painstakingly entering into a
spreadsheet all the handwritten data they have collected over the past
year in the feeding program that she and her Kwong lady helpers have
been running. This has enabled her – and now all of you – to see
just how well this program has been working. We trust that it is an
encouragement for you, albeit a sobering one, as indeed it has
been for us. Your
fellow servants, Mark and Diane |
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Malnutrition
Program - One Year On Statistics
from a year’s worth of data. 420
Newborns are
vaccinated each year at our clinic. Vaccines for mumps, measles,
rubella, chicken pox, polio, and tetanus are all provided free of charge
by the Chadian government in collaboration with the World Health
Organization (WHO), CDC, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During
our first 12-months of feeding malnourished kids, 88 children ages 1 to
2 – or about 20% of the kids vaccinated – came back to the clinic,
qualifying as malnourished by the criteria of the WHO. Most
of those we saw - 60% - qualified as “Severely Malnourished”
by the WHO criteria (a measurement of the child’s upper arm
circumference). We provide them medical treatment and enriched feeding
mix free of charge. For the moderately malnourished, we charge
only a minimal fee which gives us a reasonable way to limit the number
of children we are feeding. Very
sadly, 30% of these mothers whose children qualified as severely
malnourished did not make the effort to return and take advantage of our
free medical treatment and feeding program. Success
rate. Of those
who followed our treatment program at all 60% improved, most
moving up to moderately malnourished, and some to not even malnourished
at all.
Why
so much malnutrition? We see ignorance as the biggest culprit.
Mothers don’t know: ·
Colostrum
is good. ·
Vaccines
are very important. ·
How
or when to ween a child. ·
Malaria
left untreated for even one day can kill your child. ·
Unchecked
diarrhea can zap a child in just a few days. ·
Infants
need to eat small amounts very frequently. ·
A
child is a person created in the image of God, and not disposable. ·
Care
for a child is a responsibility that God has entrusted to us. |
20% of
all children become malnourished
Women line up outside our clinic to get their babies vaccinated 60% of
those become severely malnourished
30% of
mothers of severely malnourished kids drop out and don’t take
advantage of the free medicine and feeding mix
Of
those who stick with it, 60%
improve! |
