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Tender
Moments of a New Life
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Dear Augustus
Lutheran Church,
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Each day
in the neonatal intensive care unit, tender moments are
witnessed. A mother holding her small baby for the first time. A
physician carefully listening to the rapid beating of a new
heart. The assistance of a nurse helping support a baby's first breaths.
A NICU can be frightening for a new mother and even more
frightening when her baby is born too soon, too small. The team
in the NICU uses such tenderness alongside their skilled hands
and trained minds... and the results are obvious. Small infants
are stabilized, and joyful smiles of mothers emerge. Today, our
NICU offers a low-technology, evidence-based approach to caring
for small, sick infants that results in an unimaginably high
survival rate for Tanzania.
Above and below, a mother nestles her baby skin-to-skin, kangaroo
mother care, providing the warmth and assurance that her body can
offer even while the infant(s) receives respiratory support
through a nasal RAM cannula and are fed breastmilk through an
orogastric feeding tube. All the details are attended to and the
infants rest peacefully. What a joy and a privilege it is to be a
part of providing this care. The world could use more
tenderness.
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Twins are one reason that some
newborns need many days in the NICU, as they are more likely to be
born premature. With the assistance of the staff, this mama is able
to provide more than warmth for her babies. Kangaroo mother care
(KMC) has many benefits- regulates heart and breathing rates,
improves lung function, decreases stress, reduces risk of
infection, and improves weight gain-- all of which helps improve
the development of the small brain!
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Tiny
Feet, Big Steps 2024
African
Neonatology Conference
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It's that
time of the year! This is the 4th Neonatology conference we have
held in Arusha and it looks like it may be even more far-reaching
in its impact as we have several new countries sending teams. Over
120 hospitals from 20 African countries and several non-African
countries are sending their doctors and nurses to learn from a team
of nearly 50 instructors arriving from across the globe. They will
be coming to learn innovative, low costs ways to improve
neonatology services in their hospital setting. This may be the
largest clinical neonatology training conference held in
sub-Saharan Africa.
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In May, Hannah
graduated from St. Olaf and it was a grand celebration!
Caedmon was able to join us and together we celebrated her
accomplishments. She excelled in every way and it was a joy to
meet her friends and professors with whom she has developed
relationships over these 4 years. She had a wonderful summer of
travels (including coming home to TZ to attend Indya's
graduation), and she is now so very happily settled into the
University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine! She
loves every Vet Med class, giving us regular updates of her
animal anatomy class, and can't stop talking about how grateful
she is to be there. This is such a huge blessing.
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Indya graduated
from Rift Valley Academy in July and also with honors! She has
such a good set of friends with whom she has laughed and hiked
and studied over these 4 years. There were times when her
"chill demeanor" lulled us into thinking she was just
cruising along... until she was awarded the Salutatorian of her
class! Another surprise- she joined rugby this year and became a
top fearless tackler!! What next?! She keeps us guessing. At this
time she is at the beginning of her gap year and is volunteering
as a keeper of pangolins and civets at Saving Vietnam's Wildlife
Center in one of their national parks, gaining experience in
conservation. She is enduring the heat and humidity and is blown
away by the beauty of Vietnam. She will be there for 2 months and
be returning to MN later this fall to work for a time before
heading off on more adventures in environmental conservation.
Caedmon has started his Jr. year at UW
Madison, and is deep into his computer engineering classes and
loving it. In his spare time he is rock climbing and slack lining
on a long line and has managed to walk 70m. His goal? Highlining,
of course! Always more challenges. I'm grateful for harnesses and
helmets.
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There
are always hard seasons in life, and these past 3 years have held
one of the hardest for us to navigate. Mid-2021 there was an
abrupt change in leadership and governance at Arusha Lutheran
Medical Centre (ALMC) that was outside of our influence. As we
waited to see the outcome of this change, we continued our work.
But it has been difficult as ALMC is struggling to pay salaries,
procure basic medications, and retain staff.
Through the support of our donors we have managed to uphold the
standard of care in the NICU, and keep it running while the rest
of the hospital is struggling. Our NICU remains the
gold standard, the best place of care for a sick
or preterm infant in Northern Tanzania. It is difficult to know
where these infants will find care if ALMC's NICU has to close.
For that reason, we are continuing to walk forward, until we are
out of options. If you are interested in helping these mamas and
vulnerable babies, we could use your financial support as we
procure medicines, supplies and equipment for their continuing
care. We are also now paying all salaries for the NICU
doctors and nurses through donations. You can use this link for
financial support of the NICU: https://give.ghm.org/nicu or
www.tanzanianchildren.com
Though the work at Selian Hospital with
malnourished children continues in the inpatient ward, the
outpatient program has suffered a setback in our acquisition of
Ready To Use Therapeutic Food, the anchoring nutrition food
product on which many children rely to complete their healing following
a hospitalization. The setback is multi-faceted, as all
challenges are, and we are hopeful recently that some forward
movement is being made.
The school gardens are growing!! I am happy to report that the
ongoing work of nutritional education is bearing fruit (pun
intended), and we are looking forward to new opportunities for
education in the community- new schools and a health center. Stay
tuned!
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We had a
busy summer with 2 graduations on 2 continents, and trips from CA
to PA to visit supporting congregations. Thank you to
those who hosted us! It is always good to connect face to face
with you while we are Stateside. We regretfully know there are
many more churches that we were unable to visit. The schedule was
full and we moved and slept in more places than we care to count!
We are both now back in Arusha, in one place, for a time.
Life is full of ups and downs. Joys and sorrows. As you glance
back at the newsletter, you will see we are experiencing life!
Would you please pray for us- for wisdom, courage, and strength
to face each day?
Let us leave you with part of a prayer that resonated with us as
we participated in a service at Ascension Church in IL:
"You are before us, God, you are behind; you are in
the light and the darkness;
you see our most public face; you know the secret thoughts
of every heart.
We bring the faith that is in us, and the doubt;
We bring the joy that is in us, and the sorrow;
We bring the pride that is in us, and the shame;
We bring the knowledge that is in us, and the ignorance;
We bring the hope that is in us, and the despair;
We bring the courage that is in us, and the fear.
God, give us the grace to walk in the way of Christ.
Guide us by your Spirit. In Jesus' name."
Steve and Jodi
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