ELISIO JOINS OUR FAMILY One year old Eli­sio has been in our INFANT FORMULA PROGRAM for sev­er­al months after los­ing his moth­er ear­li­er this year. Born on August 18, 2023, Eli­sio has been liv­ing with his father who tru­ly tried his best to care for the infant, but this lit­tle boy need­ed a woman’s touch. On August 19th, Eli­sio became sick with malar­ia, and the hos­pi­tal staff want­ed to admit him as he need­ed blood for severe ane­mia. But the father refused, say­ing he was the only fam­i­ly mem­ber for the child so he could not admit him. He demand­ed they give him malar­ia med­i­cine for the child and he left for his vil­lage. On August 22nd, Elisio’s father brought him to our week­ly weigh-in so he could receive food for the infant. Children’s Direc­tor Anna called me imme­di­ate­ly say­ing this baby was very ill and need­ed the hos­pi­tal imme­di­ate­ly. One look at the infant and I put them into my King Cab and off we went to the hos­pi­tal. Eli­sio was admit­ted, and prepped for imme­di­ate trans­fu­sion. His hos­pi­tal stay was unevent­ful, for after the trans­fu­sion he began to eat well, and was released into our care on August 26th. He is now what I call a “feed and grow” child as he is very under-weight for his age.

Fos­ter Moth­er Sara, hold­ing Eli­sio, who is more than ready to leave the hospital.

UNEXPECTED GUEST AT LUNCH PARTY Our chil­dren were all seat­ed and wait­ing for the CIS lunch to be deliv­ered when a Granny showed up at the fence with a 7‑week-old infant. The infant’s moth­er is very ill and unable to breast­feed due to mas­ti­tis and oth­er prob­lems.  In des­per­a­tion, the Granny and father of the baby came to us for emer­gency help, since Social Ser­vices is closed on the week­ends. With just 20 min­utes before the lunch van would arrive, I raced off to fetch the milk for­mu­la, a baby bot­tle, and a bot­tle of clean water.

Direc­tor Anna show­ing Granny how to feed her 7‑week-old grand­son with a bottle.

While I was gone, Anna, our Children’s Direc­tor began giv­ing them instruc­tions on what to do on Mon­day when Social Ser­vices opened their doors. To be in our milk pro­gram, every infant must reg­is­ter with Social Ser­vices. Thank­ful­ly, Anna com­plet­ed her instruc­tions on how to mix the for­mu­la just a few min­utes before the lunch van arrived from CIS. This lit­tle fam­i­ly went mer­ri­ly on their way for the infant final­ly had a full tum­my. YOUR LOVE GIFTS AT WORK! BLESSINGS,BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE AND THE BALAMA STAFF