Smiling at milk

Birungi Suizen smiled yesterday.  His little fragile life continues to teeter on the brink, but for the first time (for me) he grinned.  This boy is the embodiment of weakness, one of the least-of-these.  His mother has revived hope.  Please keep praying for him, for a miracle of life to grow.  

I smiled too.  Because when this smile happened, we were in the process of moving new UNICEF food into our store.  Last week the promised provisions came to fruition.  When we had celebrated the end of Ebola, all of the dignitaries walked together through town to the hospital grave sites of the medical workers, where there was a special ceremony honoring Dr. Jonah and the others.  On this walk I approached a tall mature African-American looking woman, thinking someone of her age and color who was now flying in on a helicopter with the big-wigs was someone I wanted to learn from.  I enjoyed hearing her story, she turned out to be a remarkably brilliant and courageous pioneer of medicine from Panama, working now as a country director for UNICEF, Dr. Gloria. Dr. Gloria was moved by Jonah’s story as well, and by the needs of Bundibugyo, and promised to do something.  Stephanie had long been appealing for UNICEF involvement but had been denied by their regional representative, so when Dr. Gloria heard that, she promised action.  Sure enough a couple of weeks later a delegation arrived and toured the hospital, seeing the needy kids.  Then last week a truck came with boxes and boxes of supplies, in the midst of the Easter holiday.  It wasn’t until yesterday that Heidi and I attacked the organization.  We cleaned and cleared the Paeds ward store room, arranged shelves, and unpacked.  

After years of improvising and doing our best, we now have bags and bags and bags of powdered milk formulas, specially designed with vitamins and minerals to treat severely malnourished kids.  Birungi Suizen was the first to receive some.  Many others will follow.  They also donated Oxfam kits with cups, spoons, buckets, potties, scales, pens, record cards . . . An amazing and generous boost to our meager supplies.  

This donation for the sickest inpatients is still only one small and specific part of BundiNutrition.  We will continue to buy and give normal milk to motherless babies, supplements to children affected by AIDS, outpatient beans and g-nuts and soy flour to moderately malnourished kids.  We will continue to import dairy goats (51 to arrive Tuesday!!) and maintain a coop of egg-laying-hens.  We will continue education and outreach, home visits and follow-up, demonstration gardens and seed distributions.  But the UNICEF milk powder means that the most severely affected children, the ones actually in the hospital, will receive a much more nutritious product.  

God provided.  We, and Birungi, are smiling.