Ravine babies

Izaola (below) was badly malnourished as an infant and spent nearly a year at Dorothy's house. She had been home in the ravine over a year when the earthquake hit and her family was displaced. I finally saw her in person last week and she hasn't changed a bit. OK, she's a little taller but she still refuses to smile at me!




Angeline (below) and her little siblings, Roseberline and Robinho, appeared in the ravine early this fall. They were malnourished, on the edge of severe, with large swollen bellies and red hair, very lethargic and weak. I dewormed them, treated their chronic diarrhea, got them a water filtration system, signed all three kids up for Sherrie's feeding program that gets them a meal and a vitamin every morning, and started them on Medikamamba twice a day. Medikamamba is a special peaunt butter ball that we make for children who are protein deficient. It works miracles and it tastes really good! Months later, the three of them still have big bellies and red hair, but they are developing muscles and most importantly, they are strong and energetic. They play with me now, talk and smile, something they never did during the first few months of treatment.




Emmanuel and Emmanuealla are twins, born in early January. At 2 weeks of age, Emmanuella was being neglected (unintentionally by a mom who was overwhelmed and exhausted from the stress of twin newborns) so she was sent to Dorothy's for a brief stint. Another 2 weeks later, she was doing OK but her brother was nearly dead from dehydration and diarrhea - someone had convinced the mother that it was better to express her breastmilk into a bottle rather than breastfeed directly thereby exponentially increasing his risk of being ill. He ended up spending a week at the Doctors Beyond Borders field hospital while Emmanuella went back to Dorothy's. Now, both babies are home with their mother, taking milk directly from the breast, and looking very healthy.


And yes, I do know that the cat is not technically a baby anymore, but he had such beautiful eyes, I just had to capture them. The orphans at HFC used to say that I have cat eyes, so I am always on the look-out for a cat with blue eyes like mine and this green-eyed one was the closest I've found thus far.