“’I noticed his body was swelling, including his face and legs, so I rushed to the hospital for health attention,’ his mother explained when I visited the clinic. Patricia did not know the exact disease that brought discomfort to her second born son. I found him lying on a neat disposable sheet that was displayed on the hospital bed donated by the Malawi project through Namikango Mission. Patrick’s body still showed signs that he had not fully recovered.”

“Young Patrick Dandaula hails from Nyangwara village in Traditional Authority Mwambo east of Zomba Town in southeastern Malawi.  It was obvious to the attending physician that Patrick was not getting some of the nutritional food elements his body needs. ‘The problem is very common among children under five years of age because they are sometimes not given all the required food nutrients,’ explained the nurse in charge, Mrs. Kajanga. I noticed that Patrick was comfortably laid on a very neat new disposable sheet and was given a new blue basin to be used in washing and bathing. All of this came from the Malawi Project.  These supplies are changing patients’ lives for good. For children like him it is becoming easy to take care of them because of these disposable sheets. ‘When children urinate on a sheet the blankets around them don’t have to be destroyed because the sheet protects them. Infection prevention is now a reality because each patient is given his/her own basin to use,’ Mrs. Kajanga further pointed out.”

Patrick will receive vitamin enriched foods at the clinic under the doctor’s supervision until his health picks up. Patrick is just one example of many children that are currently facing food shortage as witnessed by their body’s food deficiency signs. Some research from other sources indicates that less than 10% of Malawians receive adequate protein. This lack of adequate nutrition can lead to diseases like Kwashiorkor in Patrick and other children.  Patrick’s life, and the lives of other children, are being saved with treatments of protein and vitamin rich supplements.

“The mission staff is there to extend all the donations to the required needy groups of people like Patrick. They may seem simple, but to Patrick, the basin is a lifetime gift that will help make his life better. Just think, if Patrick were sharing one basin with other fellow patients for bathing and washing, more diseases could be transferred from one patient to the other thereby increasing chances of death threat,” Tembo points out.

By: Wilson Tembo, Namikango Mission & Maternity Hospital, Thondwe, Malawi

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