Wednesdays are some of the busiest, most wonderful days here at our center. Each Wednesday morning, our baby house is filled with tiny, beautiful babies who are brought to our milk clinic because their mothers are either too sick or too malnourished to produce milk, or the mother has left or passed away. As baby formula in Madagascar is very expensive, especially in comparison to the regular Malagasy income, buying milk for babies is not a reality for many in Madagascar. Many of these babies come to us very malnourished and with other illnesses as well. Many come to us having only been fed watered down condensed milk or tea, and many who drink tea slowly die from it. These precious treasures need the formula we give them to survive. We get to love and care and provide for these beautiful babies, and so often we see God do incredible miracles.
One of these miracles was a little princess called Evah. Evah was born one month premature this July. Because of this, she spent her first month of life in the hospital in Madagascar. Premature babies can face such a big struggle so early on in life, due to a lack of resources that one would normally get in a western hospital. While staying in the hospital, Evah's hand was burned on her incubator and she had to have her first finger amputated, which left her with an infection in her middle finger. When she came to us, at just 1.67 Kilograms, she needed more than just formula. Our medical team saw her every other day to dress and re-bandage her wound on her finger until it was healed, which doctors also feared would need to be amputated. Today, just a few months later, her wound is completely healed, she is consistently gaining weight, and we consider it such an honor to be able to love and care for her!
Another one of these beautiful miracles is Tsiatosika, brought to us by her grandmother who was caring for her after her mother died. She was extremely malnourished and her grandmother humbly brought her, having nothing to give herself. We saw her every week, giving formula and care by our doctor. We are so excited to announce that she just graduated from our milk program at one and a half years old. On her graduation day, her last day on milk program, her grandmother broke down in tears and could not stop thanking our medical team, saying that she never would have had a way to care for her.
We LOVE what we do! And we are so grateful that God allows us to love and care for so many of His most precious treasures in Madagascar!