A letter from Darlene and Paul Heller in Malawi
March 25, 2009
Tsala
Friends,
It’s the middle of the day. The visitors at the gate arrive without warning, piling onto the porch in a wet, tired heap. A mother, a nursing infant, a toddler, an 8-year-old and a grandma. We recognize (barely) the toddler and realize with dismay that it is Tsala (pronounced “Sara”). Tsala was discharged three months ago, a happy, healthy 14-month-old.
Today Tsala is crying, miserable, wet and cold. Her hands and feet are swollen, as is her belly.
Tsala has kwashiorkor, a protein deficiency. Three months ago, she was a healthy toddler.
The rest of her looks puffy. She is suffering from kwashiorkor, a protein deficiency. She has been fed nothing but a small amount of nsima, a maize flour mixture, for several months. Nsima contains no protein, no fat, nothing that will nourish a growing child. Starving is a long, slow, miserable process that causes a child to suffer horribly. Tsala is starving.
Her family has walked a great distance in the rain to get here. Tsala’s father has remarried (her mother is dead) and his new wife has a new baby and several children of her own. Those children were fed, but Tsala received little. Seeing her desperate condition, her aunt took her in. But Tsala’s aunt has problems of her own and can no longer afford to feed Tsala herself. She receives no money from Tsala’s dad. As a last resort she brought Tsala to our nursery, hoping for some help.
We bathed and fed Tsala and gave her clean, dry clothes. The family was given food while we deliberated. What to do? We were full and could not take Tsala back. And all our admissions have to come through social welfare. We can’t provide Tsala’s aunt with food for the foreseeable future. If we did, whole villages would be at our doorstep.
We decided to take Tsala and her grandma to Central Hospital, which has a feeding program. They will keep them there until Tsala is better. They have a nutritionist who develops a feeding program for each child admitted. It includes high quality porridge and lots of milk. Tsala was admitted the same afternoon.
The picture of beautiful Tsala in her new pink dress was taken during a follow-up visit by Crisis Nursery staff at the end of December 2008.
But then what? Tsala’s father is refusing to provide money to feed her. He refused to see us when we went to his home to talk to him. He didn’t even visit Tsala in the hospital or provide food for his own mother, who was staying with his child while she was there. This is a difficult situation that for us is hard to even comprehend.
Tsala is recovering now but we don’t know what is going to happen to her. The story is so common here: no food, no money, no one acting responsibly toward their own children. It’s heartbreaking. We hope Tsala will be better cared for in the future. But we just don’t know.
What we do know is that on Tuesday (March 17) after three weeks in the hospital’s special nutrition unit, Tsala and her Grandmother and returned to the village. Thanks to a generous donation, the Nursery was able to supply her with 12 cans of Lactogen, enough formula to last her about a month. Tsala’s grandmother is doing her best, and with a little support from the father we believe she is going to make it. In a few weeks we will do a follow-up visit to evaluate her progress.
Now we pray that she will again be a bright and well cared for baby.
Paul and Darlene Heller
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