Malnourished Children

Last week another 3 year old died from malnutrition in our village clinic. Malnutrition is a problem in my region of Burkina Faso. Over the past few months, when we go out on vaccination rounds in the other smaller surrounding villages we weigh the children. This monthly weighing is an easy way to see trends in weight and notify parents of malnourished children. (Ex: 23 months old at 4.400 kg = less than 10 lbs) This is where my work comes in and I will discus with the family better nutritional and hygiene practices, and a demonstration on how to make an enriched porridge with local produce. Over the past four months this child who recently passed away was continually losing weight. His family was warned of the problematic trend. They seemed not to care too much, until this last visit when their child was obviously severely malnourished. I don’t need to attach a photo here; you’ve seen similar kids on TV. He couldn’t walk, distended belly, cracked bleeding lips, chapped and swollen feet and hands, sunken eyes barely open. We took him to the clinic and tried recuperating him with IV’s and feedings. It was just too late. He passed away the next day from complications due to malnutrition. His body systems just basically shut down. You could see in his eyes he was so tired, he just wanted to die; to stop his suffering.

His mother is currently pregnant, and his father has 3 wives and couldn’t afford to pay for all of them to be properly fed. Life is looked at differently here, especially the lives of children. Like I said before he will have no funeral, and no ceremony. The family will just have more children, hoping that the next child with better economic times this will survive. The hardest thing for me to grasp here is the cultural regard to life. It’s hard for me to imagine living a life that is so difficult you have to think of only yourself.

Friends ask me, “Are you making a difference over there?” It’s a question I ask myself a lot. I know I am making a difference, to what extent I will never know. A very similar child to the one above has regained weight is eating well and is healthy. When I first met the little guy he was in bad shape and I thought he would not make it, but after spending a lot of time with the family and mother he was recuperated. So maybe I saved one kid. That makes a difference right? So yeah I am. His mother participated in my Nutrition Project and has now become a role model for other mothers with malnourished children. Last week while we were playing with her now healthy and happy kid, she told me “Awenice”, Merci Beaucoup.

On a way lighter note, I got a new puppy. His name is Kisira, (“Chief of the Courtyard” in Sambla.) Same name as my old dog, just a new language. There are 66 different native languages in Burkina. If he can’t make it home with me, he will be better off than my last one. This ethnic group doesn’t eat dog.