Friday, April 18, 2014

The Mulago Malnutrition Ward

Today began with a visit to the Mulago Public Hospital where we visited the children's malnutrition ward. As you can imagine, this ward can be a very sad and heart-breaking place. However, the staff and counselors like our old friend, Sarah, work very hard to create a place of love and hope for the children and their mothers. Sarah was our guide, along with Empower Staff member, Edith (another old friend), and they helped explain to us the causes of malnutrition in children - which has less to do with access to food and more to do with poverty, lack of education and HIV / AIDS. It was a sobering visit in many ways but it was also very educational and inspiring. It was particularly interesting for our alum delegate, Jules, because she hopes to study malnutrition in the future as she has seen so much of it first-hand in Mozambique where she is a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was an impactful visit for each of us and  it helped us to understand some of the very serious challenges of Africa, one of our trip goals.

Our group at the outdoor classroom of the Malnutrition ward

Sarah orienting us about the causes of malnutrition  

Edith and Sr. Grechen

Sarah and the sisters

Touring the "elephant" ward - the elephants are the ones just about strong enough to go home
Bidding farewell to inspirational Sarah

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