204-- HIV positive women who flocked to the Community Center for the all-day process of talking to us, being weighed and counseled, tested and encouraged, and going home with food.
70-cups of beans each woman carried away, in a sack. Food to boost the family.
3- litres of cooking oil, to add calories .
500--grams of salt, adding the flavor.
3--dollars given to each for transporting the above home. Some come from 20 miles away, some from a stone's throw. Some are thriving on their treatment, some are so weak they could not begin to carry their sack of goods ten feet. So we provide a token gift to enable them to get their help home without losing it.
26--children coming with their mothers, who were over a year old and weaned, and had not previously been tested.
24-children out of the above 26 who were HIV-negative, a cause for celebration. This is not a random sample so we can't draw too many conclusions, since the sickest or deceased will not show up. However any time our transmission rate seems to be on the order of less than
10% we are pleased, rather than the expected 30% with no intervention.
17--number of babies too young to be tested by the rapid antibody test who are waiting for the sophisticated polymerase chain reaction viral detection test, whose samples have to be carried to Fort Portal for analysis. These will then be encouraged to wean earlier than normal,
and be absorbed into the Matiti project to receive milk-giving goats.
41--number of women who elected to receive a family planning injection, enabling those who have delivered babies to now rest and regain some of their own health and strength, to perhaps live longer to care for the child they already have.
13 and 5--number of kilograms a mother and baby pair gained this year in the program. Luci came weighing 35 kg (this is an adult woman!) in February, but was up to 48 today. Her son Byamukama doubled, from 4.5 to 9 kg.
5 and 15--number of missionaries and Ugandans, respectively, who labored all day to pull this off, including nurses and lab techs, pastors and manual laborers. Kwejuna project affords us the
opportunity to pull together for a common cause, to be blessed by the diverse gifts of the people God has placed here.
Intangible--the real reason people come, Heidi commented after watching all day, is not to get so many beans or that extra bag of salt. It is to spend a day where being HIV-positive is normal, where you are only one of two hundred women in the same boat, where a polite and caring group of people have assembled just to care about you, where you can tell someone about your anxieties and be understood, where you can hear words of hope and life that are matched by deeds of love and sacrifice, and perhaps catch a glimpse of God.
204-- HIV positive women who flocked to the Community Center for the all-day process of talking to us, being weighed and counseled, tested and encouraged, and going home with food.
70-cups of beans each woman carried away, in a sack. Food to boost the family.
3- litres of cooking oil, to add calories .
500--grams of salt, adding the flavor.
3--dollars given to each for transporting the above home. Some come from 20 miles away, some from a stone's throw. Some are thriving on their treatment, some are so weak they could not begin to carry their sack of goods ten feet. So we provide a token gift to enable them to get their help home without losing it.
26--children coming with their mothers, who were over a year old and weaned, and had not previously been tested.
24-children out of the above 26 who were HIV-negative, a cause for celebration. This is not a random sample so we can't draw too many conclusions, since the sickest or deceased will not show up. However any time our transmission rate seems to be on the order of less than
10% we are pleased, rather than the expected 30% with no intervention.
17--number of babies too young to be tested by the rapid antibody test who are waiting for the sophisticated polymerase chain reaction viral detection test, whose samples have to be carried to Fort Portal for analysis. These will then be encouraged to wean earlier than normal,
and be absorbed into the Matiti project to receive milk-giving goats.
41--number of women who elected to receive a family planning injection, enabling those who have delivered babies to now rest and regain some of their own health and strength, to perhaps live longer to care for the child they already have.
13 and 5--number of kilograms a mother and baby pair gained this year in the program. Luci came weighing 35 kg (this is an adult woman!) in February, but was up to 48 today. Her son Byamukama doubled, from 4.5 to 9 kg.
5 and 15--number of missionaries and Ugandans, respectively, who labored all day to pull this off, including nurses and lab techs, pastors and manual laborers. Kwejuna project affords us the
opportunity to pull together for a common cause, to be blessed by the diverse gifts of the people God has placed here.
Intangible--the real reason people come, Heidi commented after watching all day, is not to get so many beans or that extra bag of salt. It is to spend a day where being HIV-positive is normal, where you are only one of two hundred women in the same boat, where a polite and caring group of people have assembled just to care about you, where you can tell someone about your anxieties and be understood, where you can hear words of hope and life that are matched by deeds of love and sacrifice, and perhaps catch a glimpse of God.
2 comments:
Praise Jesus for such an amazing work of his grace. Your faithfulness is such an encouragement to me.
As always, your posts blow me away in terms of how those of you working there are literally being the hands and feet of Jesus as you minister to those in such need. What an encouragement to read of so many positive numbers reflecting the incredible impact your efforts are making. Three minutes of reading your blogs do more to help me set my sights on eternal things than 30 minutes of preaching by even the best pastors! God bless - Cindy
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