Children, such a precious commodity ..

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Growing up as we do in a society where children are recognised as being important, where there are advocates for children and where the birth of a child is usually a joyous occasion it is hard to come to grips with the attitude towards children that we are faced with here. This is bound to be a bit of a generalisation, but a child’s life here can sometimes be ‘expendable’ easily replaced or not to be given too much thought because there are many others. Daily in the children’s home we see the effects these attitudes have on the lives of children. At the Children’s home this week alone there are three new babies, one only two days old and the oldest only 3 months old. Mothers dying in childbirth seems to be common, with the extended family unable or unwilling to care for the new child. Another baby was simply left in the forest and was ‘lucky’ enough to be found by someone and bought to the Children's home.
At the hospital we witness fathers who are unwilling to pay for a child’s medication because they do not have enough money, the child is too sick - so it would be a waste of money and also because he may have 3 other wives and so plenty of other children. Again generalisations, there does seem to be some fathers who go to long lengths to ensure there is money for their child’s treatment, but of course it is the ones that don’t that stick in your memory, and of course my memory is very fresh at the moment.
Just this week I had tried very hard to keep a little baby alive, nagging doctors and all the staff, but her father had given up on her. The mother sat patiently by the bedside while the husband remained aloof and seemingly uncaring. I could feel the mothers despair and the way she watched me when I went to check on the baby. I couldn’t cope so I stormed off to the pharmacy to buy the drugs myself. The staff were supportive of my actions, I could not sit and watch a child die who might have a chance. I will not find out if she survived until I go back in on Monday. I do try not to upset the balance of things here but sometimes I just have to wade in in my size 12 feet….
On the bright side, we now have a long weekend together and we are heading off to Bolgatanga to explore crocodiles, palaces and the slave trade.
We had a lovely meal tonight cooked by Birgit of pasta and tomato sauce, all homemade of course. To follow it was fresh pineapple, warm, sweet and juicy and Richard found us all a treat, we had snickers, bounty, mars bar and kit kat and you could feel the ecstasy around the table as we all tucked in to the best treat we have had in a long time. Not that we are dreaming of those things at all.

Monday 6th November..
I am plesed to say that the little baby mentioned above did survuve. Between the Austrian girls and myself we made sure she received all her medications and fluids. She was discharged too early and was still very weak but at least she was alive and she has proved what a tough little fighter she is so God willing she will grow to be a strong girl. Life is indeed tough for the woman and yesterday while I was working I told the men around me that if I lived in Ghana I would like to be a man. The woman work so hard and expect so little. They all laughed very much but they also agreed!!!

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