On a recent outreach to Tikonko village, the Mercy medical team saw an extremely sick baby named Adama, who was suffering from severe diahrrea and vomiting.  The child was restless, irritable and disoriented.  The team brought her back to the hospital for treatment, accompanied by her mother Hawa. At the hospital, Adama was diagnosed with severe malaria.  
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On admission, Dr. Sao Amara prescribed medication, which was provided free of cost.  The nurses administered the drugs and Adama was kept under observation in the hospital until the vomiting and diarrhea stopped.  Hawa stayed with her baby for two days until she was alert, oriented and stable.  Dr. Amara reported that "the mother is  very  happy for  her child's health and the child has been discharged."  There is no doubt that the outreach team saved little Adama's life.

Tikonko village is one of the places served by Mercy Hospital's outreach team.  

Baby Betty was rescued from severe malnutrition by the Mercy outreach staff, and her story was shared in the April 2017 newsletter.  A year later, and Betty is out of danger, a healthy and beautiful little toddler.  Last month was Betty’s 12th visit to the nutrition program (her mother has been one of the most consistent participants). It was also the first time she was in the “green” range of the MUAC*, and she may be eligible to graduate from the program this month.

Last year we also shared stories about Baby Mamie (original story here and update here) a severely malnourished infant first encountered by the Mercy outreach team in Tikonko village. A year later, and Mamie has made significant improvement; although still small, she is a healthy, active toddler. Mamie is on her 6th visit to the nutritional clinic, and she is “yellow” now, moving towards green.

*Interpretation of Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) indicators

• MUAC less than 110mm (11.0cm), RED COLOUR, indicates Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). The child should be immediately referred for treatment.
  
  
• MUAC of between 110mm (11.0cm) and 125mm (12.5cm), RED COLOUR (3-colour Tape) or ORANGE COLOUR (4-colour Tape), indicates Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). The child should be immediately referred for supplementation.
  
  
• MUAC of between 125mm (12.5cm) and 135mm (13.5cm), YELLOW COLOUR, indicates that the child is at risk for acute malnutrition and should be counselled and followed-up for Growth Promotion and Monitoring (GPM).
  
  
• MUAC over 135mm (13.5cm), GREEN COLOUR, indicates that the child is well nourished.

In early May, staff of the Child Rescue Centre and Mercy Hospital participated in a training held by OneVillage Partners to learn community mapping and other concepts for effective community development. The skills learned in the training will help the CRC and Mercy to connect with the community, religious, and government leaders, as well as members of the community to make it easier to identify and support the most vulnerable members of the community. 

OVP is a Sierra Leone-based organization that helps rural communities train, empower, and mobilize leaders, so that they can address their community’s most pressing, self-identified problems. By including the community in the process of identifying problems and developing solutions, OVP empowers people to solve their own problems and strengthens community investment in solutions. 

OVP trainers Musa Gangha and Muje Josephine Lansana taught the CRC staff critical communication skills including focus group facilitation, appreciative inquiry (how to interview without leading the subject), and the Mercy Staff power-wise ranking (how villages can vote for their own priorities), and social and resource mapping. OVP trainers also coached both staff in identifying stakeholders, to ensure good representation in data collection.

The staff learned skills specific to developing and including voices which are often more difficult to hear, especially those of women and children.

“We found the OVP training very important as it directly relates to our present job,” observed Child Support Program assistant coordinator Victor Kanu. “The training has changed my perception about community development. In any community work I am doing, I will involve community people for better participation.

Ismael Vandi, Mercy Hospital statistician, found the training very worthwhile.  "I really learned so many things I did not know before. The mapping for example, I never knew there were so many types of mapping. It was really interesting to learn about the power wise ranking method. It really helps make the decision making process easier and clear. Bringing the community people on board and making them really involved means that it will be easier to understand the community. Participation by community members is key. They know best what they want and need in their community. We need to ask them and involve them in any development project so they benefit and understand it."

OVP’s central concept is the “sharpening stone” (see video below). When a person tries to farm with a dull machete, he cannot do the work well, he needs a sharpening stone to make the machete effective. The “sharpening stone” of community empowerment is the teamwork involved in community mapping.

Scenes from Mercy Hospital's training session with OneVillage Partners.

Below, the Child Rescue Centre training.

A one month old set of twins (a boy and a girl) were orphaned when their mother died in childbirth.  Their grandmother is raising them, but had no means to nourish the infants, so Mercy Hospital is providing formula for them.

As the nutrition outreach program expands, Mercy is seeing more cases like this one, and providing care that is not otherwise available. There is no other facility in Bo that provides formula to motherless babies.

Update on Jeneba: Jeneba's grandmother brought the baby back to Mercy just one week after receiving the milk, and she already looks so much healthier.  It is amazing how something so simple as formula could make such a huge impact in only a week.  

Below left, Jeneba is wrapped in a blanket made and donated by volunteer Malessa Porter.  Jeneba's grandma loves the blanket and always keeps the baby wrapped in it.  The name Jeneba means "beautiful one" in Mende, and indeed she is a beautiful baby.

Kim Nabieu, Medical Programs Field Director

Jeneba celebrated her 3 month birthday at Mercy Hospital. The previous day, she had been brought into Bo from a faraway village. Her mother died not long after giving birth to her, most likely of pregnancy/delivery related issues. Jeneba’s grandmother was attempting to care for her but without breastmilk, the only alternative was to give the baby water which she occasionally added sugar or milk to.

After almost three months, Jeneba's grandmother knew something was wrong. The baby was not growing and was the size and weight of a newborn. Worried, she called her sister, Memu, who lives in Bo. Immediately, Memu told her sister to send the baby to her and the next day she traveled to Mercy Hospital with Jeneba.

Mercy staff immediately identified Jeneba as an at-risk patient. As she is still below six months of age, Mercy determined that the family should be giving her formula. This is very cost prohibitive (a can of formula costs $5 and lasts about a week). Mercy was able to provide a can to the family and has committed to supplying Jeneba with the nutritious milk she needs until she is 6 months old and able to eat the Bennimix provided in the Mercy Nutrition program.

​Memu chose to bring Jeneba to Mercy because she had heard from a neighbor that Mercy had cared for their malnourished child during a village outreach event. 

This is an awesome story of the impact Mercy can have, how the outreaches spread word of our programs, and the wonderful extended family system in Sierra Leone. 

Also worth noting is that we have seen children whose mothers have died, and they didn't make it because the intervention wasn't early enough. I think we have enough time that this will save the child’s life! Go Mercy! There is no other organization I know that does this……what an important gap to fill!