August 9, 2020
Refugee Situation & Tremendous Needs
Our hospital is a BRIDGE over troubled waters, food insecurity, and illness. It is a blessing to watch a child that has refused all food accept food again. It is a blessing to see a child walk for the first time at age 3. It is a blessing to see a child smile and extend a hug when he sees you instead of breakdown in tears. As Emmanuel says so astutely, “Kids in the hospital need love Mom.” He gets it and wants to give his clothes and toys away. He wants to extend a hand in friendship. He finds true joy in giving. There is so much that I have learned about love from our son.
If the health of our children is a litmus test of societal health, then our immediate geographic area is in trouble. We are beginning to see that children are collateral damage of armed conflict. Collateral damage! Every day we are admitting 3-6 children to the hospital with severe protein-calorie malnutrition! If we continue in this way our hospital admission rates will be 4-5times that of last year, and we could approach 600-700 hospitalizations.. We simply will not have enough beds. I looked at all of the charts today to see who I could possibly discharge to home. Almost all of the 30 current children have come in the last 2 weeks.
How can this message be heard? Shout it from the rooftops: "We are HURTING our own children! Lay down your arms!"
The pandemic has officially arrived in our hospital. This virus exposes all the weak points in a health system, including ours. There are many things that we need to improve to be able to provide care safely without endangering other hospitalized patients (and our families). This is why infection control and isolation is so important. Hospitals, like ours, can truly be daily “super spreader” events in places like Congo.
Do we open the children’s play garden or do we wait?
As I walked around the hospital I saw at least two dozen people in one of our pediatric wards…sitting together on beds and the floor…kids crawling everywhere, I said to myself, “Yes, we need outdoor space in such a time as this. Outdoor spaces will decrease transmission risk in a place where social distancing is unheard of. Staff wears masks, but patients (by and large) do not wear masks. So in the end we opened
Our province has more internally displaced people (IDPs) than anywhere else in the world. There are thousands of people in refugee camps and living in less than ideal conditions. Social distancing is very difficult in this part of the world and it simply is not cultural. Now the capital of our province, Bunia, is seeing lots of Covid cases. There are difficult times to come. Pray for us.
A Soybean Harvest
Our hospital nutrition program has its’ first soybean harvest! Now the work begins to dry and
separate the beans for use, storage, and sale. The crop did very well with seed pods growing waist high and very little maintenance! We continue to have a lot of rain which is good for soybeans. It seems that soybeans will be an excellent choice for future planting. It is a learning process and a time to try new things. It is great for me to learn traditional farming practices and how valuable land is to the people here.
A Project
This past week we completed work on the renovated foundation behind our house. It was
cracked and overgrown, completely unusable space. Now it is a fenced in play area with room for a basketball hoop….and complete with a hoist for various lifting needs. It is something we have wanted to do for years and have been saving to do.
Thanks for your interest in our lives and ministry here in Eastern DRC. We thank you for your prayers for peace in our region. We would love to hear from you!
Blessings,
Lindsey for the Coopers
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