All posts by Jessica Zimmermann

Addition to our family II: Zafy

After taking Claudio into our program Fidelia’s family came to us. (For those who don’t remember Fidelia: She was one of our first patients many years ago with a cleft lip; ever since then Fidelia and her family receive food packages and medical care). In her arms Fidelia’s grandmother was holding her little 2 month old grandchild Zafy. He was wrapped in a blanket and was crying non stop. She explained to us that Zafy’s mum had passed a couple of days before. The father was not able to take care of his 8 children alone so she was now helping out. Fidelia’s mum was breastfeeding little Zafy but between her own baby and Zafy there was simply not enough milk. Thus Zafy was crying out of hunger. We unwrapped Zafy out of his blanket to examine. It was hard not to cry. For his age he was so tiny. A fast reaction was essential. We had him checked by our doctor and bought everything the little man needed (milk, clothes, bottle, etc.) Fidelia’s family will now receive extra support as they now have little Zafy at their charge. It is moments like these that touch us, and we are grateful that due to our donors we can make a difference in this little boy’s life.

Marolahy

Marolahy is one of the teenagers from our family projects. He has been living in a wooden house on the premises of our clinic for many years now (together with his mum and auntie). His younger brother goes to school and sleeps at the orphanage on weekdays and comes home every weekend. Like that Marolahy’s mum can work during the week while her sister takes care of Marolahy. We are always amazed at how happy and cheerful her is, despite his handicaps (Marolahy cannot walk or talk). It is always a pleasure to see him during our visits:

 

Addition to our family I: Claudio

Every year comes with new challenges. We often have people living in or around Fort Dauphin  asking for help. Sometimes just  medical help but sometimes also to be included in our family project. Unfortunatly we can’t take everyone into our family projects as we don’t have the financial ressources at the moment. Nevertheless it is often very difficult to reject people when you see how desperate they are in need and sometimes it is simply impossible to say no. We experienced this at first hand during our time in Fort Dauphin this year. Therfor we would like to introduce you to the new members of our family projects:

Claudio is a little baby boy. Claudio’s mother passed away in December so his grandmother took him in and came to ask us for help. Our team decided to take him into our program which means he now acess to medical care (incl. all vaccinations, etc). We supply him with milk, food, clothes and whatever else he needs. During our time in Fort Dauphin we went to visit Claudio and his family. What an adorable little boy he is. Here some pics: