Christmas Gifts for Kids in the Nutrition Programme

http://www.sim.co.uk//standard.asp?id=1594&cachefixer=cf65618886429707

This is the link to the SIM UK Christmas gift Catalogue, if you go there you will find a picture of one of the kids in the Nutrition Village here in Doro. Medair are supporting SIM to set up this project. I have been here in Doro for 2 of the last 3 months working to get this project up and running due to the emergency rates of malnutrition in the area.
There is a great story about how the nutrition village has helped children here and an opportunity to buy them a Christmas gift of a set of warm clothes, blankets and towels.
If you don't know why malnourished children need woolly hats in a boiling hot place like Sudan then send me an email to ask me!

Seeing them grow!

Coming back to Maban after 4 weeks away it was really amazing to see the changes. The programme had really developed and was being taken over by the SIM team and there had been big changes in the children. How exciting to see kids who had been really sick when I left now well, fat and ready to be discharged!
Sebit was the first child we admitted to the nutrition village he had severe oedema on his legs and noticeable wasting on his upper body. Although he is 3 years old he was no longer able to walk by himself and he was very miserable. When I saw him 2 months later he looked like a different boy, healthy and happy. Its exciting to see changes like this and thank God for his care for these children and the opportunity to serve him by looking after them.

Birthday Celebrations

I though that turning 30 was a great excuse for a holiday and it was wonderful to come home and celebrate with friends and family. We had a picnic on the Sunday at Chatsworth house. Thankfully the rain held off and it was great that so many people came to celebrate with me and had the opportunity to meet Nico. After a week at home I went to Italy with Nico for a week to meet his family and friends. We crammed a lot in to one week, met lots of people, had lots of fun and an opportunity to visit some of the beautiful places in Puglia. It all went by a little too fast and I also had the achievement of taking 10 different flights in one month.

Nutrition Village Set up

We are back in Maban county, and I have the challenge of starting a programme to treat severely malnourished children from scratch. The results from our earlier survey showed there was a real need for this and so we are working with SIM to set up an inpatient ward and out patient clinic to treat children with severe malnutrition.
As usual with Medair the set up happens fast, we got the tents up on the day they arrived in the plane and admitted the first patients 2 days later. The centre is called Ban Keeyan, Village of Hope in the Maban language. The vision is that by caring for these children we can bring hope to the families that they can have a healthy future






.

Jubatastic

I've had a few weeks to get to know Juba. Being stuck in the office preparing for our nutrition intervention is not my idea of great fun but I did get to be there for moving in to our new house and putting together the furniture with Rebecca, Sophia and Tal.

We had a great Sunday morning walk up the nearby mountain followed by a great breakfast of pancakes (with bananas and nutella of course.

Work in Melut

I have had a few weeks in Melut to catch up with work at the clinic and to do some training for the community health workers. Fortunately the rain had not started in a big way yet – just enough to give me an excuse to wear my new stripy wellies to do my teaching session! However as I left there on Wednesday the heavens opened and I spent a very wet and very cold four hours on the boat to Malakal – I think the rainy season has started.

Survey in Maban

In May I was able to have a great new experience working with the emergency response team. We completed a nutrition survey in this area which is close to the Ethiopian border. Rain, mud and transport were big problems but we got the data we needed and valid survey results. I will hopefully be back in Maban soon with the team to help support the set up of a nutrition programme and respond to what we found in the Survey. The landscape was very different from what I am used to in Melut – lots of trees and very green and mountains in the distance and lots of pigs running around.