Frisco 3

This week I was able to access 48 cans of powder baby formula for ages 1-3 years!!

This has come at such a pivotal time as many of my "younger/cuter" clients have been ill with diarrhea due to their diet of rice water.

I ventured across the city in a tuk tuk with Dinet and Nancy, the older nurse volunteer to an NGO called RiverKids. They work with street kids who live along the river (as the name implies) and provide free schooling, showers, lice treatment, meals and vocational training). Daughters partners with the group Chab Dai (sp?) which works with sexually exploited or at risk children and women. RiverKids were donated 1000's of dollars in baby formula this month that will expire by March 1, 2009. They emailed all the Chab Dai partners to offer us our own bit of this amazing donation!!

We rushed the 48 cans home and treated them like gold. I quickly emptied the boxes and made a pyramid of the cans on my clinic desk. The pic is of my translator, Dinet, and I trying to decide a way to give them out to our mothers who work with us without causing a stampede or fist fight. I looked through the girls charts and wrote down every girl who had a child between the ages of 6 months to 3 years. 17 girls!!!

I called the girls down and filed them into my hallway just outside the clinic. I hushed them all and began to tell them that something exciting has just happened. Their conversations halted and all their eyes were on me. I told them that on the other side of the door was a gift for all of them that would give a healthier future to their children. I told them that we all had to be very respectful and quiet. I reminded some of them of their requests for formula this week and also of many of their sick children. I told them that we had received a donation of 48 cans of formula for them to use for their children.

I informed them that even though some of them had more then one child between the specified ages that they would only receive one can like the rest who have only one child. I informed them that if they finish their can that they need to return with the empty can in order to receive another can. I also very seriously (!) told them that this formula was in no way to be sold or bartered. That they needed to know how wonderful this was for their child's health. And if I found out that one of them had sold their can that I would be very sad and disappointed. (great way to lay on the guilt, huh?)

Oh was there ever a party in the clinic that afternoon. Pictures, hugs, smiles, songs and babies flew around the room!!

It was one of the happiest days of my life!

This being said, i am very hesitant to hand out formula unless a donation has come in. It promotes mothers to stop breastfeeding and also creates an unhealthy relationship with me and causes dependency to remain the number one problem in the clinic. I pray that these cans will give their children a head start (or a catch up) and i hope that i will find ways and strength to explain i can't keep giving...