A new perspective on viruses

Last week one of our workers was bitten by a dog which was thought to be rabid.  If you don’t know much about rabies, there is no cure, and you have no more than ten days to start a series of five injections or you die. There were no rabies injections in any government hospital in Eswatini, so he went to a private clinic and got his first two shots.  Ian and I learned about this when we just happened to pick him up at the front gate on his way to get his third shot.  Our family was sprayed by a rabid bat when we lived in Ontario, and we know the fear and the pain of many needles, so we gave him our sympathy. The next morning during our morning walk, Ian saw him and asked how he was doing. He was visibly upset as he told us that the private hospital was out of rabies vaccine and they couldn’t complete his five-shot treatment. He was afraid he was going to die a horrific death.

Ian spoke with our nurses who were able to find a pharmacy in Nelspruit, South Africa (a 3-hour drive crossing two international borders) and we said we would drive and get them. The nurse asked us to please get chicken pox vaccines too as they have not been available in Eswatini for 7+ years.  When we got to the pharmacy, I told the pharmacist that I had strange list of prescriptions:  rabies vaccines for an employee, chicken pox vaccines for our children and blood pressure medication for me, which I need because I deal with rabies and chicken pox!  She suggested that we stop at the liquor store before he headed back to Eswatini!  Meanwhile, that huge pharmacy had already sold out of hand sanitizer, but that happened months ago before the coronavirus scare began.  She pointed to a poster that told us how to make our own hand sanitizer – good to know. She also told us that they had been out of chicken pox vaccines for months, but we ended up driving home with rabies vaccines, blood pressure medication and little tequila.

Eswatini has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and it is the very reason we moved here.  There also is no cure for this disease, and medication is antiquated, sometimes out of stock, but effective if take properly twice a day, every day at the same time of day (7AM/7PM).  It’s effectiveness is also dependent on proper nutrition and protein.  People don’t die from HIV/AIDS, they die from a common cold or the flu or Tuberculosis (TB), which 70% of our total population are estimated to have active or inactive TB.  If their TB is inactive it can be activated by getting sick with something as simple as a cold, or the flu, or coronavirus. 

Most of our 315 employees have children, and most of those children are cared for by elderly parents or grandparents while the employee is at work.  Many of their children are sickly with conditions that could be treated if hospitals weren’t out of medicine, but they are.  We are a country with a very broken healthcare system, virtually no hospital care and both clinics and hospitals have run out of many/most essential medications.

This morning we had our first coronavirus patient confirmed to be positive in Eswatini. She came from the US, traveled to Lesotho, and then came back here and tested positive at a private clinic.  It bears repeating that this is a country of very old and sick people, very young and sick people and an HIV/AIDS rate that could be as high as 40%. 

As the world is facing unknown fears, which includes health and economics uncertainties, I would like to say two things to you today. First, I am personally committed to post on social media every day with words of encouragement from our children, our staff and our volunteers so that you know we are thinking of you and praying for you.  Second, I am asking if you will help us raise the funds we need to build the rest of Emseni #7 for 40 big boys.  When I spoke at an event last month in front of 15,000+ Keller Williams agents, they collectively gave almost $100,000 towards the $225,000 cost of the building. Only a few short weeks later a gathering of that size is impossible, and none of us know when there will be speaking opportunities again to build awareness and raise funds for our needs here. I know that this is a time of financial fears for many people around the world, but I also know that we need to get this building finished quickly as the children are still coming and they are in desperate need of a home. 

Please consider putting your fear aside today and help us do what we can do for these children while waiting to see what happens as the coronavirus spreads throughout the Kingdom.  Please buy a block for $25 or 100 blocks or 1,000 blocks and help us get this done. Would you also please share this post today? Everyone is looking for content to read and looking for hope for the future. I hope that our lives can be a beacon of hope from afar in the days and weeks ahead.

In the US:  http://bit.ly/buyablockE6

In Canada:  https://www.heartforafrica.ca/emseni-childrens-campus/

Just yesterday as we drove back from South Africa we got a call about two different new born baby boys that needed a home. We haven’t received a new baby in SEVEN WEEKS, so this was a surprise.  One was the result of a violent rape and the other was found in the bushes covered in his own waste which burned his face.  Both tiny boys were in government hospitals, and very vulnerable.  We stopped and picked up baby Solomon and baby Rocky (the one who looked like he had been in a fight … a fight for his life!), and we brought them home, along with the rabies vaccinations.  That is the world we are living in.  We may not be able to stop the coronavirus (although we did a hand washing seminar with all our 315 employees yesterday and gave everyone a big bar of soap), but we can help these two little guys who are not safe in a government hospital.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Live from Eswatini … we are washing our hands and praying.

Janine

P.S. There are rumors that our borders to South Africa may close soon.  90% of all food is imported, so that will cause another problem.

A baby with a HIV viral load of 10 million?

I have to be VERY careful about sharing confidential health and history information about our children so that their privacy and dignity is maintained.  There are so many things that I want to share in my blogs about individual children’s stories, but I can’t. I am including several super cute photos of super cute children so as to not identify this child in this blog.

Today I have such a HUGE good news report that I will share it subversively, without putting a name or face to the story.  For those of you who know our children well, you may be able to put two and two together.

We received a little boy nine months ago who was severely malnourished, had tuberculosis and full-blown AIDS.  He was just 2-years-old and couldn’t crawl or stand and only made grunting animal noises.

A short HIV/AIDS lesson:  there are two important measures to watch carefully when someone is HIV positive - the CD4 count and the viral load count.  The HIGHER the CD4 count is, the better.  The LOWER the viral load count is, the better.  (A viral load is the term used to describe the amount of HIV in your blood. The more HIV there is in your blood (and therefore the higher your viral load), then the faster your CD4 cell count will fall, and the greater your risk of becoming ill because of HIV. – Source http://www.aidsmap.com/Viral-load/page/1327496/)

I remember when this little guy was finally discharged from the hospital to come home to us.  I was so happy with his progress (always the optimist) and just knew that he had turned a corner, and would surely live.  Our wonderful Pediatrician (always the realist) quickly reminded me that he was FAR from being out of the woods, and also reminded me that his CD4 count was so low that it hardly registered, and his viral load count was at TEN MILLION.

In eight short months he has been given love, nutritious food, anti-retro-virals, TB medication (which he is now finished!), more love, more medical care, physical/physio therapy, lots of antibiotics for never-ending ear infections and skin conditions and never-ending prayer with the expectation of total healing.

He now walks, plays, sings in the choir, dances to music, prays at meal time with the other children, and even says “mama” :). 

On Thursday I was told that this little guy was at the Baylor Pediatric AIDS clinic for a check up and while we didn’t get a CD4 count, his viral load was 179.   Not 179,000. Not 179 million.  Simply 179 … down from 10 MILLION!!

I love the scripture that says, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”  John 21:25

We are living and seeing those miracles every day at Project Canaan. We have seen the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the very nearly dead rise up and jump for joy. 

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog, shares it, prays for us and supports us financially.  HE is our provider and I am thankful to everyone who hears His voice and is called to be a part of His story.

Live from Swaziland … I just can’t contain my excitement today.

Janine

We lost Baby Megan this week.

  On Thursday afternoon we lost our beautiful baby Megan to PCP pneumonia (Stage 4 AIDS related pneumonia).  It is a deadly and unforgiving form of pneumonia that takes the lives of almost everyone that it attacks, both young and old.  When Megan first came to us she was very tiny and very sick.  At 2-months-old she was fighting HIV, tuberculosis and severe malnutrition.  In isolation for many months, our medical team and Aunties worked tirelessly to keep her stable while dealing with feeding tubes, fevers, mal-absorption, thrush and a myriad of other issues.

On Monday morning she, along with her ten brothers and sisters (who are HIV positive), were on their way to see the specialist at the Baylor Pediatric AIDS clinic for their monthly checkup and medication.  They noticed Megan’s breathing was becoming a bit labored and the doctor was very concerned, sending Megan directly to the local private hospital to be assessed. She was admitted immediately and the testing began.

By the next morning we were told that she was in kidney and heart failure.  WHAT?!?  How could this be?  It was the dreaded PCP pneumonia.   PCP - three little letters that are a secret code for “almost certain death”. I did not know that at the time, but I do now.   But we prayed and we hoped and we prayed some more.  Only a few hours later she was put on a ventilator to help with her breathing and take some extra strain off her little body.

Wednesday came and went with reports of septicemia, acidosis and still no urine.  But Thursday morning had a better report. They were starting to wean her off the ventilator and thought it would come out completely by Friday!  We were assured that she was not out of the woods, but that she was heading in the right direction. I quickly sent out an update to our Boards of Directors and 30 minutes later I got a call from Helen, who had stopped by the hospital.

Megan was dead. 

I was not prepared for those words.  None of us were. 

Megan is no longer suffering. There will be no more anti-retroviral medication and no more feeding tubes.  There will be no more physical therapy to help with her mobility (or lack of) and no more exercises to help build muscle in her legs so that one day she could stand on her own.  And there will be no more tickling, no more clapping hands and no more birthday cake. 

Celebrating Megan's 1st birthday on September 15, 2015.

The Aunties have taken this news very hard and we are all reeling.  We deal with SO MANY VERY sick children that it is nothing short of a miracle(s) that we have not lost more.  But EVERY baby is special to us. They are our children. And I know that they are very special to you as well.

Megan was born on September 15, 2014 and shared her 1^st birthday with Ian (also September 15^th).  Next month there will be one less cake and our little Megan will be deeply missed.

Live from Swaziland … this isn’t getting any easier.

Janine

Thank you for the many prayers, condolences and expressions of love on Facebook, by email and elsewhere. If you would like to help us cover the costs of Megan’s hospitalization or the emergency medical costs for any of our children, you can do so by clicking here for the US link and here for the Canadian site.  Thank you.

The face of hope in Swaziland … a dying man, an HIV positive baby and a new set of twin boys.

This week was all about hope, but I am learning that “hope” rarely has the face that we expect it to have.

Caleb (age one) is HIV positive and has been on ARV’s (anti-retro-virals) since he was born. His mother died of complications due to AIDS shortly after Caleb was born and his father took him to the Pediatric AIDS clinic for testing and treatment.  Because the child was positive, the clinic’s policy is that they will care for any other immediate family member who is also positive (mother, father, grandmother, etc), but the child is the primary patient.  While Caleb’s father was HIV positive, he still refused to start treatment, and was getting sicker each day.

This week I learned that more than 50% of the adult/parent patients at the Pediatric AIDS clinic refuse to start treatment (life-giving, life-changing, life-saving treatment) because of the stigma around it and the knowledge that they will have to remain on treatment for the rest of their lives.  The number is staggering and I am still processing this new information.  Not only will the adult get sicker faster, but they also are more infectious to others when they are not on their ARV’s (of course they are encouraged not to participate in sexual activity).

Caleb’s father landed in prison not long after Caleb came to the El Roi baby home. Caleb was very sick and there were several weeks when Helen feared that Caleb wouldn’t make it, but he did make it.  Two weeks ago at his check up we learned that Caleb’s father was out of prison and was considering starting on his AIDS medication. We also learned that he would be back at the clinic on Wednesday, August 1^st to get his medication.  Helen asked if we could go to the clinic that day and take Caleb to see his father.  Why?  Because Caleb is the face of hope.

We arrived at the clinic at 7:15 and waited.  There are no appointments set and patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis.  Within 90 minutes a man was pushed in to the clinic in a wheelchair.  It was Caleb’s father.  He was bone thin, was clearly wearing an adult diaper and required assistance to stand up and get weighed (which is the first thing you do when enter as a patient).  Helen gasped when she saw him.  The last time they were together was in March and he was walking and “healthier” then. Now he was in bad shape. 

Helen held up a smiling Caleb and the father looked as if he had seen a ghost.  He believed his son was dead, but there was Caleb, right in front of him, laughing reaching, chatting and almost standing by himself.  The father said, “this is a miracle, he is alive”.  Sadly (but not unexpectedly) Caleb did not recognize the man who was reaching for him and Caleb took refuge in Helen’s arms.   But over time, he looked at his father and his father stared in awe of the miracle in front of him.  Helen was amazing and told the father that the child is alive because God saved him and he is taking his medication.  She encouraged the father to take his medication so that he can see his son grow and be strong.  We gave him (his sister) our phone number and asked her stay in touch and if he wanted to see Caleb at any time, we would bring him.  I believe that Caleb’s father saw hope in his little boy’s face on Wednesday and I pray that the next time we see him he will be on a better path to health.

Minutes after we left the clinic we met a Social Worker from the hospital who asked if we could help with transport to do a home visit on the twins that I had seen back on June 5^th when I was at the hospital picking up four-month-old David (see June 9^th blog).  Their story was complicated and involved a parental father raping the girl, the girl abandoning the babies and an Auntie agreeing to take them.   I was very concerned about the twins and have prayed for them daily since I saw them there, always having a feeling that I should follow up.  Wednesday the Social Worker asked if we could drive her to follow up on those very twins and so at 7AM the very next morning Helen and I picked her up and we headed out to the homestead where the babies had been dropped of. 

Helen brought some small clothes to leave with the Auntie (or whoever was caring for the babies) and our fingers were all crossed that we would find them well.  After driving for hours and covering much of the country of Swaziland by car we finally found the babies and they were in bad condition.  The Auntie couldn’t care for them and gave them back to the mother.  She was young, not stable, had run away to live in a slum (I didn’t know there were slums in Swaziland until I found myself in one that day) and she couldn’t buy any milk for them.  One of her nipples was infected and the other was providing minimal milk for both babies.  The mother is HIV positive so the milk she was providing could also be passing along HIV.  The babies were severely malnourished, weighing approximately five pounds each (they are eight weeks old).  The mother didn’t want to care for them and talked of taking them back to the hospital and dropping them off, but hospitals here (much like at home) have a “no return policy” on babies.  They were cold, naked and very despondent.  Helen immediately went and bought the smallest diapers she could find, cleaned the babies and put them in the clothes we brought for the mother.

The Social Worker was very concerned/upset about the babies and worked very caringly and diligently to speak with the mother about caring for them.  Although the mother acknowledged that the babies were in bad shape, she also knew that she had no way to provide for them and knew that if something didn’t change that they would die.  The Social Worker spoke for with the mother for a long time to try to find another/better solution for the babies.  We even got back in the car with her and drove to a distant homestead to seek assistance for the mother and children, but the answer was “no”.  The Social Worker then asked us if we would be able to make room for these two?  Bringing home two new babies was not our intent when we started the journey on Thursday morning, but by 2:30PM we had two new baby boys on their way to the El Roi home.  The firstborn is named Paul.  The second one, who appears quite sickly, is named Ishmael. 

The El Roi Baby Home was named “El Roi” because that is the Hebrew name for “the God who Sees Me” found in Genesis 16:13 when Hagar was still pregnant with Ishmael.   Our God, El Roi, saw the pain that the mother was in and the pain that these twins were in and called in his servant, the Social Worker from the hospital, to go and find them. 

Strangely (or not) that very Social Worker was reading Genesis 16 in her office when we picked her up on Thursday morning.  I didn’t find this out until much later in the day (!).  When we reminded her of where the El Roi name came from, we all gave thanks to God for His ways are not our ways, but they are perfect.

I saw hope in the face of Caleb this week.  I saw new hope in the face of Caleb’s father.  I saw hope in the face of a young mother, who was watching her babies die and could do nothing about it.  And I saw hope in the face of a Social Worker who is doing impossible work with no budget.  But I know that it really wasn’t those three who showed me hope it was my Lord and Savior who gave me hope by using those people in my life. 

Psalm 25:5 says, “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long”.

As we continue on through these turbulent waters I am determined to keep my eyes on Him.  That is not always easy and sometimes requires hourly reminders, but that is my hearts desire.  My hope is in Him and only Him.

Live from Swaziland, I am determined.

Janine

16-years-old, HIV positive, and pregnant with her third child

On Thursday we got a call from the Social Welfare department saying that there was an 8-month-old baby boy who was in desperate need of help.  On Friday morning Helen and I dropped Chloe off at her school bus at 6:45AM and then headed to Siteki  to see what we could do.

We met with the Social Welfare officer who introduced us to the baby, and his mother.

The baby’s mother is 16-years-old, HIV positive, and pregnant with her third child.  The first child is being raised by the father’s family.  The father of the second child (the one in her arms in front of us) ran off and abandoned them both.  The father of the baby in her belly is dead.  She had so much pain, so much sorrow and a face that was totally without hope.

She was living with her step-sister because all of her family is gone she had no where else to go, but the step-sister’s boyfriend didn’t want to have to provide for the little baby and the new one on way so he kicked out of the house.  She had no where to live, and no way to care for her child(ren).  She went to the Social Welfare office to see if someone could care for her baby, while hoping to be able to abort her unborn child. 

We agreed to take the baby to El Roi and she seemed satisfied.  We also agreed to receive the newborn in August if she promised not to harm the baby.  She agreed.

As the official paper work was completed we discovered that the baby we were taking with us turns one-year-old on Sunday, June 17^th.  He is the size of a 4-month-old and is severely malnourished.  His hair is sparse and a light orangy color. He has a distended belly and his “poop” is the color of sand since there are no nutrients in his body.   Despite his condition he has seven teeth (our first baby with teeth!!) and he smiled at us in the office.

Papers were signed and as we headed to the car.  I asked the Social Welfare officer how this young mother would be feeling at this moment?  Scared?  Desperate?  Mourning?  She told me that the girl was happy that her baby would be cared for and sure enough, the girl smiled and laughed as she handed her baby to Helen.  I am not sure how to interpret this.  Happy that the baby will be well cared for or happy that she no longer carries that burden … or both?

We drove straight to the Baylor Pediatric AIDS clinic and had him tested and weighed.  He is HIV negative (THANK YOU JESUS!) and he weighs 12 pounds, 12 ounces (and remember, he is one year old).  We have a long way to go with this little one to get him healthy and happy, but that time begins today and we are thankful for the opportunity to serve him.

 

We asked what his siSwati name meant in English and we were told that it means “God with us”, so this little one will be called Emmanuel, God with us.

It has been another challenging week, but I am thankful for all that we have been given.  Our summer interns arrived yesterday and today they started sorting thousands of pairs of TOMS Shoes, preparing them for distribution to the children who live in our rural church communities.  Tomorrow we hang curtains, harvest our Moringa crop and build a dog pen for our newest addition to the Maxwell family (her name is Nala).  It’s Saturday morning in Swaziland and we are all alive and well.

Thanks for following, reading and praying. 

Janine