Response

In response to the experience we had with the baby that died in the hospital of malnutrition Emily and I decided to hold a special women's seminar to talk about what we saw as some of the main causes of malnutrition in children. We wanted to talk about the lack of effective birth control resulting in more children than a family can afford, the power dynamic within a family and the rights women's have if someone in there family is hurting them or their children and proper nutrition for young children.

We went to the hospital and got the matron to agree to give us a meeting room near the family planning clinic to hold the two day seminar. We also talked to the head nurse at the family clinic who was hesitant at first to let us speak with her patients but she came around and was actually extremely helpful in the end. It's one thing to know the information a women needs to keep from getting pregnant it's an entirely different skill to know how to disseminate that information in a way that village women with many superstitions and little education can understand and feel comfortable with. The head nurse has both skills. We had a doctor from an organization called Marie Stopes who specializes in disseminating information on birth control in rural areas come and speak. He brought many displays and even brought a 3-D model on the female reproductive system that the mama's were all fascinated by. We had a police officer from the local station come as speak about what women can do if someone is hurting them or their children or forcing them to have sex. The officer was very good, although I'm not sure many of the women would actually put their husbands in jail if they forced them to have sex or denied their children food. But we are there to empower them to take action themselves we can't do it for them. Now at least they know they can put their husband in jail if he is abusing them. Finally we had the doctor that actually treated baby Christian come and speak about proper nutrition for children. He encouraged the mamas to breast feed as long as possible since this is by far the easiest way to make sure your baby is getting all the nutrition he/she needs. He told us afterward that if you really want to hold an effective seminar on childhood malnutrition you have to bring in the fathers. The mamas aren't the ones depriving their children, it's fathers who refuse to give food or money that are the real cause of the problem. I think we will have the police officer come to one of our community football matches where all the men hang out and talk to them about their legal responsibilities as fathers.

In all the women's seminars was a big success. We had 57 women attend and they all came away with information they didn't have before. Now it's up to them to use that information to protect their children and live healthier lives. I saw baby Christian's Mama at the hospital a few weeks ago. She hugged me and said "Thank you." She was their to get a birth control implant that lasts three years. No more babies for her anytime soon. I think she made the right choice. I don't know what kind of impact the seminar will have on the village childhood malnutrition rate. If any, it will surely be small. But I do feel like we changed things for some of the mamas in our community and chipped away a little of the misinformation and fear that keeps women in situtations where they have to watch their children starve. Who knows maybe something we said will one day save a child from baby Christian's fate. All I can do is have hope and keeping pushing.