Formula Program Needs

 

The infant mortality rate is really high in Zambia.  Rural Zambia is ranked among the highest in Africa.  The rate for Zambia is 62.9 deaths (of infants under 1 year) per 1,000 live births.  For infants, it is 70 deaths per 1,000 live births, and it is 119 deaths per 1,000 under 5 years of age. (indexmundi.com/zambia/infant_mortalityrate.html)

A program to help with this problem was started in Mwandi a few years ago.  Many mothers who are malnourished (it takes 500 additional calories/day to breastfeed a baby), have HIV related issues, or other problems preventing them from breastfeeding, have been placed on this program.  The mother is screened at the hospital and put on the program by a nutritionist.  Then, she comes to me to pick up her formula.

This program is a very expensive program, and the need for formula is greater than the money being donated for formula.   Many more mothers could be placed on the program if there was more money.   We have about 40 babies on the program plus 10 babies from the social welfare district in the next district (because the government, also, cannot afford to pay for these babies to be on formula).  Last week, I have had two new babies put on the formula program because their mothers died during child birth.  Because of this, my supply of formula is getting low and I am rationing out formula until the new shipment is to come at the end of the month.

This program is so important, and it takes a lot of donated money to keep it going.  For a month’s supply of formula, it would cost about $96 if it was purchased at the grocery store in Livingstone.  We use a distributor and can get a month’s supply for about $52.  The more money donated to the project, the easier it is to keep the supplies full for each child that truly needs it.  I know that so many people care about these needs.  In order to donate to this project, go to donate.cvmusa.org/support/longterm and click on Open Doors (Evans) with a note designating the money to go to the formula project.  

We would love to partner with you on this project! 

-Alicia

Mother and Baby (twin of below), formula in background

Older daughter and second twin!

The Small Things

I want to do big things and be important.  I want to do big projects that help lots of people and make a difference.  I can’t get slowed down by individual needs and specific wants that take me away from the greater good.  I want to have the biggest impact in my short life and help the most people I can.  I need to teach, to preach, to build, to change things in good ways.  God wants me to.  Maybe, maybe not…

Recently I was doing a rabies clinic just after a girl had been attacked by dogs in our village and population control was in the limelight.  I was spaying and neutering on the tailgate to my hearts content and vaccinating between surgeries.  The numbers were going by and things were getting done when a woman pulled me aside.

In her broken English and my broken Silozi I learned she had a dog that could not come to the clinic.  It could not move from her house and can I come there?  A sense of aggravation crept into my heart at the thought of leaving this busy place to attend to one behavior problem dog.  If you can’t catch it at home, I can’t catch it at your home…but if you wait until we are finished maybe I will have time to go there with you.

The woman waited several more hours, maybe I hoped she would give up.  It was hot and we were wearing out.  Eventually the dogs stopped coming and the day was wearing out too.  The woman waited patiently sitting at a distance from the surgery area.  Okay, let’s go.  Isaac and I pack up and invite the woman into the truck to show us the way to her home.

A few kilometers later down a bush road we came to her mud home in the middle of a maize field.  One dog came out and we vaccinate him.  That was easy, he could have come to the clinic.  But she says there is another dog inside the house, he has been shot and can I cut the leg?  What?

I go into the dark house and there a dog is cowering iwith a shattered front leg in the corner.  He tries to act mean to keep me away but I can see the bone sticking out in all directions and the useless limb pressing into the dirt floor.  He will just die?  She asks.  Probably I say out loud.

My heart is moved and awakened,  This dog can’t come to the clinic.  He will die here from infection and in pain.  This woman loves her dog.  God created her and the dog and me.  He loves the woman and the dog he created and me.  I remember in that moment why I wanted to be a vet and how I have pushed that to such a small thing.  My heart goes to the woman and the dog.  This small thing is their whole thing today and for the last several days.

I have no more anesthetic, and an amputation in the field?  No way to fix that leg.  But if not me then who else will do this?  I have to try.  I have antibiotics so I leave that with her and tell her I will come back when I have more drugs for anesthesia.

A few days later and a trip to Livingstone we are back with the needed drugs.  It takes us awhile to find her house with her as a guide.  She seems a bit surprised we are back and takes us to the dog.  He looks much better, the antibiotics have kept infection away and kept him alive.  He gently lets us catch him and take him to surgery.  The surgery on the tailgate makes me think of a Civil War field hospital.  Obby and Isaac hang in there until the end and everything goes well.  He will do fine.

“Ni tumezi ahuluhulu!”  says the woman, handing us 6 ears of maize from her field.  She is all smiles.  We are all smiles.  What a great day!  What a joy to serve!  Did we waste resources and time?  I don’t think so.  We loved someone and something God created.

God wants us to take time for people and His creation, not get lost in programs and numbers.  We will try to separate out what He has made into priorities, categories, checklists and goals.  Listening to His still small voice can be hard over the clanging cymbals of ourselves and the world around us.  Without love our work is just work.

Thank you Lord for your word and your Spirit that leads us in your work.  Help us to be quiet and listen to You.  Ni tumezi ahuluhulu!  Amen.

1 Cor 13:1-3
Ni tumezi ahuluhulu!
Thank you very very much!

Obby and the dog after surgery

Rabies Clinic

CAUTION- Dog lovers may want to skip ths one.

Today we did a rabies clinic in the village.

For a couple years I and some others have tried and failed to make an organized effort between veterinary officials, myself, the city council, and the people to get the dog problem under control.

And there is a problem.  Large groups of dogs roam around the village and the people are very afraid of them.  Many evenings we have counted 12 or 15 in a group and been kept up by the fighting and howling throughout the night.  Once when sitting in the house I heard Rachel scream the real scream (parents know what I mean) and I came racing outside to see 3 dogs closing in on her at full speed.  I arrived just in time to kick a lunging dog away and it remains a terrible memory to me.

While we were away this holiday another girl was not so lucky and ended up in the hospital for 4 days.  This prompted an uncoordinated response.  The local government began shooting dogs in mass.  One problem was they were not very selective and I heard more than one sad story about a pet I had spayed or neutered that was no longer around.  About 200 dogs were killed in those few days and one person injured by a stray shot.

Now I am back and everyone is intested in vaccinating dogs though.  So I made a plan with the vet officer to do a vaccination clinic of which part one was today.

We started at 8 hours.  Gradually people started coming and by 9 we had vaccinated about 15 dogs but the vet officers were not around to write certficates.  People waited, the crowd grew and then Doc showed up and began to take care of the paperwork.  Once he was there to give the vaccines I was free to start some surgeries.  I do spays and neuters on the tailgate of the truck on the village and it draws quite a crowd and I love the sense of accomplishment surgery gives me.

About 25 more vaccines in and 2 or 3 surgeries a gunshot rings out somewhere nearby.  By now I have about 30 people and half as many dogs around the truck, some asleep, some drunk with anesthesia and some just hanging around to see what’s going on.

“Guess they decided to shoot some more dogs today?” I ask no one in particular.  But it seems I am the only one who noticed.  But a few minutes later I hear a group of excited chilren and look up from my spay to see a man in a military uniform shoot a dog about 50 feet in front of me.  It is quickly over but as the report of the rifle rings in my ears I have the odd thought of how ironic it would be if I were accidentally shot by this man as I stood here doing dog surgeries.

No one else is really that interested or seems to think this is a wierd day.

So, when in Rome, I keep my head down and keep working.  All throughout the morning I spay and neuter and we vaccinate as periodic shots ring out from all around us.  I hear no complaints of any vaccinated dogs being shot and so I hope it is only the strays being removed.

By the end of the day we had vaccinated 64 dogs and done 13 surgeries before running out of anesthesia.  We go back tomorrow for another round and hope to do more.

I’m sorry for a story that may upset some people.  Understand the dogs are a large problem here and rabies is as well.  Groups of dogs have been known to kill small children, livestock, and even attack adults at times.  I just recently saw a calf that was attacked and then began neurologc symptoms and drooling a week later before it died.  I can only suspect rabies from the head and neck bite wounds.

People love their pets, but many more dogs are wilder canine versions here.  It was just a crazy weird day for me and I think maybe a good one to write about?  Here’s hoping so anyway.

And a thank you to each of you that read this far and support the work here and are part of protecting people from rabies and even trying to improve the lives of the canine family members who don’t have it that easy here either.

Surgery on the tailgate.

Post-op dog in ambulance going home.

Veterinary officer vaccinating for rabies. 

Office/recovery ward.

Refugee Life Snapshot

This is just some bits about things going on in and around our lives that I want to share as told to and believed by me:


I know a man.  He lived in his country with his family since the time he was born until he could not anymore.

He was a driver for his government.  When a war broke out his government fled and he was captured.  He could drive for the rebels or not live.

So he drove for the rebels and one day an accident happened.  Seven rebel officers in his vehicle were killed.  The driver for such an incident would be shot on the spot so he ran.

But he could not run to his government or he would be executed for driving for the enemy.

So he runs to another country to be safe.

No time to get papers in order he is captured with his family by police and placed in jail.

He and his wife are suspected of child trafficking and his children are taken away.

He spends almost 2 years in prison.  His wife in a separate facility.  God sends people to take care of their children and they are able to stay in contact.

The govenrment decides they are innocent and tries to send them back to their country.  But there they will be killed by either side?  God sends people to fight for them to stay as refugees and they are saved from returning.

Now in a refugee camp there are new challenges.  No electricity, no running water, build your own house, grow your own crops if you know how.

Camp officials protect you.  Provide passes if you want to leave for up to 30 days.  Donated supplies from the outside can be sold for more than the value of helping a refugee though.  You can go to another country like Canada or Sweden very fast if you have enough money to put your name up high on the list.  Maybe someone has stolen your story and identity and gone already to another country and you are lost to the system of the world.  If you complain that can be kept track of too.  You won’t complain so much if you fear losing more.

But he is joyful.  His family is alive and together.  God has provided all his needs.  He prays God will improve their situation but he doesn’t complain.  Just tells stories.  He does not try to elicit compassion.  He does not say his life is unfair.  He does not answer all my questions all the way about what they have been through.  Just admits it was hard.

Anyway, it is enough.  Enough to make me see how much I have been given.  How much is required of me that I am often unwilling to give.  Enough to make me feel the weight of my selfishness and yet also experience the enormous joy in giving to and loving others.

I hope and pray for each of us to see what God is calling us to and to be brave and wise enough to follow Him there.

“In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for a I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33