Monday, March 14th seemed like a normal day in
Swaziland…school with the girls, and then off to take a Bomake to the clinic
for some X rays and meds. As we
were waiting in a line that would appear to take hours for us to reach the
point of speaking with a human, Amy asked if I wanted to visit the Children’s
Ward, there at RFM. Anything to
get out of the heat and an ongoing line, I agreed to go to see the children.
(Written four years
ago: taken from my journal)
…As I am leaving the hospital with the team I can’t stop
thinking about the children there at that hospital. (If you can even call it a hospital…it seems more like a
holding place until you die!) I
don’t think I will ever forget the smell of the children’s ward. It was a distinct smell, one of almost
death. The first room I visited
was for Burned Children. The smell
took my breath away as I entered this room. Eight beds lined the entire small area. Some kids had bandages on their arms;
some had bandages on their legs.
One even had a small bandage on his forehead…but the most shocking of
all the children in this room was the little girl who was covered from head to
toe with a bandage. All you could
see was two tiny holes for her eyes.
The story was that her family had just discovered her status as HIV positive
and they wanted her dead. (It is a
“curse” if you have HIV/AIDS) They
proceeded to boil water and pour this on her….I am guessing she is about 18
months old…..
As we pull away from this place, I am vowing to NEVER go
back to that hospital…it is too much for me to handle. Those poor children….
********
I mentioned to Amy, that I vowed years ago, when we were here
on our first short-term trip that I would never go back to the children’s
ward. We laughed as we walked
through the door and instantly the memories came flooding back. I passed by the room that once held the
18 month old who was burned so severely that she had no chance of
surviving. We walked past the bed
that once held the infant whose mother begged for me to take her child. We crossed over into the room that once
held the little boy who was so malnourished he couldn’t even hold up his
head. I smelled the same
smell. I heard the same cries. I even felt the same sickness in the
pit of my stomach.
We stopped and talked to several kids along the way but we
were drawn to the “Malnourished Ward” for some reason. We found a little boy who was abandoned
in the bush a week earlier and was brought in by some teenagers. We have formed a bond with “Charlie”
and hopefully we will soon become his foster parents until a more permanent
home can be found.
The second day that we visited “Charlie” a new patient was
admitted to that particular ward. If you close your eyes and envision what a
National Geographic picture of a starving child would look like…it is he. He was so thin and emaciated that he
almost didn’t look human. The mother, who had very little to do with him,
looked very young and sick herself.
She didn’t try to snuggle him, or even help him when he was crying. She told us that her son is 6 months
old….WHAT? He probably doesn’t
even weigh 7 pounds! She was more
interested in eating herself, than taking care of her son. Who knows what the future for this
child will be? Will she abandon
him, like “Charlie’s” mom did?
Will she see to it that he gets the proper treatment to become
healthy? Will she help her son? ….Probably
the answer is no. It is safe to
assume that this mother will abandon her son also. She will see him as an expense and too much trouble. He may even be a “curse” for her or her
family. She will probably leave
him in the bush as well, if she doesn’t leave him at the hospital alone first.
There are many needs here in Swaziland. There are many hungry people. There are many people dying from
HIV/Aids. There are many sick
children. There are many people
without jobs. There are many
people who can’t afford to take care of their children……but God had us visit
that hospital for a reason. One
was to meet and fall in love with Charlie, and the other was to get us on fire
for an Abandoned Children’s Home here in Swaziland. So many children are left alone, to die, just because their
caregiver can’t “afford” to take care of then. There are so many babies out
there that need medical attention, a safe environment to sleep, proper
nutrition, and most of all love.
We are in the process of developing criteria for a “Safe House”. At this point we are in the planning
stages….but we serve a big God and He can make this work for these precious children.
I will keep you posted on the developments of this “Safe
House”. Please pray that things
will quickly fall into place so that we can take on these sick, abandoned
babies. Thanks in advance for your
prayers….
Allison
