A Car Full of Gold

Here in Ethiopia, the early summer is famine season. All of the crops harvested during the dry season have been eaten long ago, and the summer maize harvest is still weeks away. This is the time that our inpatient unit begins to fill up with malnourished children—children who have too little food and are wasting away, or those whose bodies are so protein starved their limbs and face swell up like balloons. For children such as these, our malnutrition re-feeding program literally saves their lives. But we can’t do it alone.

UNICEF provides special re-feeding formula that is specifically designed for malnourished children. Our local health department is responsible for collecting the supplies from a distribution center (which is a two-day drive away) and delivering it to us. But like so many other things here in Ethiopia, the system doesn’t exactly work. There are so many reasons why… Political ones—like the fact that this area isn’t supposed to have any malnutrition. Logistical ones—like the car needed to pick up supplies is broken. Personnel ones—like the person responsible for picking up supplies changed jobs.

And so, for a year, as our supplies dwindled, we asked and asked for more. And for a year, UNICEF formula sat in their distribution center and expired. And for a year, we talked about how this was just another frustrating example of why the work of saving lives here is so difficult.

And so, as our hope diminished as fast as our last box of re-feeding formula, we prepared to make our own two-day trek in our private car to pick up the UNICEF supplies. And then the phone rang. The supplies had arrived. They were nearby in Bonga waiting for us to pick them up! Within a few hours Jeff was in our car driving back from Bonga with a 6-month supply of malnutrition formula. With his window rolled down, and the music blasting, he had more than one thing to be thankful for. Because just when you’re ready to give up, something about this place surprises you just enough to keep you going.


Pictures of Kwash Girl:
Above: Before
Below: After