Keren

This past Tuesday we had our monthly milk distribution for the motherless infants in the area. 42 children were brought from as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) despite the pouring rain. We were so pleased to see many chubby children and others who were making good progress. We enrolled 6 new motherless infants, a set of premature twins averaging 4 pounds each, and a severely malnourished 8 month old who was about 9 lbs 9 oz.

The newborn pictured here has a neat story. Her caretaker lives in DRC and for a year has been breastfeeding a little cutie named Sukrani. He was a relative to her divorced husband, but the woman volunteered to nurse the child. We assisted the caretaker, whom we now call Mama Sukrani, with a food stipend to keep up her milk supply and some porridge when the child was older. Pat would say that if she would be any child in this program, she’d want to be Sukrani, because he was so well loved and cared for. We were not the only ones who noticed. The little girl pictured here lost her mother soon after her birth on New Year’s Day 2007. The community knew immediately what to do. They found Mama Sukrani and asked her to breastfeed her. She willingly agreed. Later, she gave her my name, Keren.