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Dear
Dale,
Nothing can beat the joyful smile of a child, the exuberance in
which these kids embrace the ideas of nutrition and gardening is
evident. Some of these new opportunities give us a fresh look at
our work and impact, and keep us motivated and hopeful for the
future. Steve and I are inspired by the young and motivated
doctors and nurses with whom we work as well as the students from
the village that bring their enthusiasm to the garden.
While Jodi has been busy at Selian Hospital and the school clubs,
Steve has been keeping the NICU humming along as well as training
doctors, seeing children in his busy clinic, and answering loads
of messages everyday from worried parents-- and planning for
hosting the next international NICU Conference at the end of
October! Stay tuned!!
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Gardening and Nutrition Club
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I
have recently started a gardening/nutrition after school club at
a nearby rural primary and secondary school. The area is a
semi-arid environment and we made the most of the rainy season by
planting 4 nutritional perennial leafy green vegetables that we hope
will provide the students with a boost of vitamins and minerals
in their school lunch.
For the gardeners and farmers who are interested... we planted
chaya, moringa, new zealand spinach, and sweet potato (the leaves
are eaten, not the tuber, and it continues to produce
leaves).
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Planting a perennial
spinach for the future!
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We
continue to remain busy, with pediatrics at Selian Lutheran
Hospital and ALMC. Established NICUs at both hospitals
often run a combined daily census of 30+ babies, many of whom are
born weighing less than 2 lbs. The work of our 11 Tanzanian
doctors and 30+ NICU nurses inspire me, and sometimes I forget
how far we've come over the past 10 years. Achieving high
survival rates and seeing healthy infants and toddlers come back
with their mothers to visit us and say "thank you" (see
below) offers a deep, soul-filling joy to members of our team,
who work long hours in a hospital facing monumental challenges
that cannot be easily put into writing.
Last month we were able to send 2 Tanzanian doctors to University
of Minnesota for 6 weeks, to attend a Global Health Course and
see how pediatrics is conducted in Minneapolis-St Paul. We
look forward to their return this week to Tanzania, and their
newfound enthusiasm for Global Pediatrics.
In October we will be hosting our 3rd annual "Advancing Care
of Critically Ill and Premature Babies in Africa" conference
in Arusha. The scope of this 5-day training conference has grown
dramatically, as speakers and attendees arrive from across the
African continent, Europe and North America. It has become one of
the largest clinical neonatology conferences offered in
East Africa.
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May 2022:
Baby Giselle, born at 30 weeks weighing 3 lbs (1390 grams). She
spent 33 days in our ALMC NICU.
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May 2023:
Grace and Giselle. Mother brought her into our NICU on her 1st
birthday to say, "Thank you for saving my baby".
She even brought a birthday cake for all the nurses and doctors
to share! :)
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It is
a common saying in Tanzania: Water is Everything. Since my last
"weather report", the rains did arrive and we are so
thankful. As you know, weather is linked to the nutritional
status of the communities and food insecurity is one of our
biggest challenges in addressing malnutrition.
The childhood malnutrition that we have been treating through an
inpatient program at Selian Hospital has been humming along as
well and we have 20+ children coming through the program every
month. We also have been able to share hundreds of boxes on RUTF
(Ready to Use Therapeutic Food) with surrounding hospitals and
clinics which we received from MANA. Food insecurity is a reality
especially in the rural areas so we continue to look for ways to
support those who are hungry.
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Indya
celebrated her 17th birthday last month! She had a lovely day
with friends and a hike to their "chai spot" and even
though she had an AP exam that day, her laughter on the phone at
the end of the day told us she had had a great day. We both
headed up to Kenya in late May to see her at her Junior-Senior
Banquet at Rift Valley Academy (RVA). This July, Indya will be
finishing up her Jr. year. She has completed some of her
major exams so she has some free time for things like... pottery
and friends!
Caedmon and Hannah have both finished their school years and are
headed into summer. Hannah just returned from her St Olaf College
study abroad program in New Zealand and Australia, which was an
amazing and educational adventure! She will spend the summer in a
wildlife rehabilitation internship in MN.
Caedmon finished his Freshman year well though not without
incident! He was doing some "free climbing" and had a
significant fall which resulted in trauma surgery for a shattered
patella and broken foot. He is recovering and will head up north
in July to work at an outfitters for BWCA. Please pray for speedy
recovery!
We are looking forward to getting the 5 of us back together for
at least a few days later this summer!
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It
was a great joy recently to have our Pastor Christian and Molly
Ruch here with us! Even though the time was short, we appreciated
the opportunity to show them our work and home in Arusha and
we were greatly encouraged in the time we had.
There are plenty of days that bring challenges and
discouragement, but there are equal amount of days that bring us
opportunities and hope. We are grateful for the opportunity
to be here in Tanzania and serve this community. Thank you for
walking with us.
Steve & Jodi
Care of hospitalized newborns and children, and
training of doctors and nurses, is supported through your
donations.
www.tanzanianchildren.com
or
https://give.ghm.org/nicu
New videos are now posted on the YouTube Channel, Neonatology
Africa:
https://www.youtube.com/@neonatologyafrica9640/videos
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