NEW INFANT JOINS OUR FAMILY! Infant Gil­da, born Dec. 31, 2023, has been in our milk pro­gram since April, 2024 when her moth­er passed away from an unknown ill­ness. Sad­ly, Gil­da did not grow like she should have under the care of her Grand­moth­er. The Grand­moth­er received mul­ti­ple instruc­tions on prop­er infant care dur­ing her first few months car­ing for Gil­da, but did not heed the instruc­tions. She refused mul­ti­ple times to release cus­tody of the infant. On Feb. 20th, Baby Gil­da pre­sent­ed with seri­ous malar­ia and severe mal­nu­tri­tion at our week­ly weigh-in for the Infant For­mu­la Pro­gram. The Grand­moth­er brought the child in, then ran away leav­ing the infant at the weigh-in with her 15-year-old daugh­ter.  Social Ser­vices was imme­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed. I was giv­en per­mis­sion to take Gil­da to the hos­pi­tal imme­di­ate­ly. She was admit­ted, and IV malar­ia treat­ment start­ed after her “quick test” showed pos­i­tive with­in min­utes. Gilda’s weight was only 6kg/13.2 lbs. at 14 months of age. This weight is equal to a 4 to 5‑month-old infant! With­in a few hours, Cape­na, our Office Man­ag­er and the Social Ser­vice agent had locat­ed and informed the fam­i­ly of the infant’s grave sit­u­a­tion. The fam­i­ly final­ly agreed that our mis­sion was the best place for the infant. Gil­da was hap­pi­ly released to us on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 26, after 8 days of IV malar­ia treat­ment. Nor­mal is 5 to 7 days. The hos­pi­tal staff want­ed to make sure the malar­ia was com­plete­ly gone, as the malar­ia in her sys­tem was extreme­ly strong.   AMAZING RECOVERY, as Gil­da is the first baby to GAIN A LARGE AMOUNT OF WEIGHT while fight­ing malar­ia in the hospital.

Baby Gil­da look­ing great with Fos­ter Moth­er Julieta.

On Wednes­day she weighed in at 7.3 Kg/16 lbs. after 1 week in our care. Just shows every­one the slow weight gain that Gil­da expe­ri­enced was not caused by a phys­i­cal prob­lem. Gil­da will now grow up with us, thanks to your life sav­ing Love Gifts! DANCING DOZEN MAKES UP THE NEW LITTLE DISCIPLES GROUP! These 12 super ener­getic 3‑to-5-year-old chil­dren make up the 2025 class of the Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples pre-school.

Our 12 Lit­tle Dis­ci­ples with their teachers.

They love to dance and sing as well as play Choo-Choo Train with their Teacher, Fati­ma. The video shows them play­ing Train and lov­ing it!(Click this link if the video below does not playhttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/wii64FeQLpI )

Lit­tle Choo Choo train goes round and round.

Three teach­ers will pre­pare these lit­tle ones for 1st grade.They have 3 years with each stu­dent, and I take my hat off to them for their patience, and love for these chil­dren. BLESSINGS, BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF