Butoke
update, April 30, 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Almost the 1st of May. The dry season has started with some
hesitation, and the rains are no longer daily. The minor harvest has started
but has not yet made a dent in food prices.
Our nutrition center continues to receive many
malnourished, and for the last six months, we have a new phenomenon in which
big children over 5 years old are slightly more numerous than the under fives
among the severely malnourished. At the same time, we see more malnourished
adults. Among the adult malnourished women, there is a total failure to
lactate, resulting in severely malnourished babies under 6 months old. It is
sad, as this means we are approaching famine conditions.
Anyone interested in more details may request the
statistics of the Center for December through April by emailing Dickens
Warfield at Dickenswarfield@comcast.net. FAO has officially recognized that
Western Kasai is close to famine conditions. For those who read French, we can
dispatch their document (email Dickens Warfield) that is supported by their own
data on production and marketing in the province.
In the last week, we took on a new initiative. Motherless
babies, as they are called in Nigeria, are babies whose mother dies during or
soon after delivery. Throughout Africa, they are accused of having killed their
mother and most families want to get rid of them soon after the mourning. Here
in Kananga, only one convent (Mère de l’Espérance) accepts them reluctantly on
condition that Butoke provides the milk until the age of 2.
Currently, we sponsor 13 infants that are under 6 months
old in this convent, but they are at the end of their absorption capacity. So
when, last Monday, distressed grandparents turned up with a 5 day old
motherless baby of about 2000 gr who had had only tea since birth, we decided
to keep the baby and hire one of our handicapped women as caretaker. We call
this baby Jean.
This Wednesday, he was joined by a 20-day old baby whose
mother died 15 days ago. One aunt gave him breast milk for a few days. Since
then, also, he had only tea. He must have been a strong healthy baby at birth;
his length is normal but he lost a lot of weight and is now under 3 kg. Our
biggest joy is he sucks with enthusiasm and force. His parents called him
Mukengeshayi (meaning let them make him suffer). We prefer not to use that name
and call him Luc referring both to the evangelist and to the fact we want him
to feel lucky.
Newborns are particularly vulnerable, but Jean and Luc
are tough; we hope they will make it. If anyone feels like sponsoring them
directly, the cost is relatively high as the special milk is costly and we need
a full time caretaker. Milk is about USD 105 a month and the worker costs USD
100 again. But it is the only chance for these babies.
We attach our report to CHF on our protection activities.
Violence, especially sexual violence on minors and women, is relatively
frequent, and society, as well as families, are ill-prepared to fight it,
because any girl or woman is identified as a property. They are as such without
rights. We have a long way to go but with your help we struggle on.
Currently, we are negotiating two UNICEF-sponsored
projects in nutrition. The protocol to be followed is agreed with the Congolese
government and seems based on assumptions of an acute food shortage of a
temporary nature. But the projects will be located in Luiza and Tshikapa, two
areas hardest hit by the economic crisis. Estimates run around 16% of acute
malnutrition among under fives and 45% or more chronic malnutrition. The
chronic malnutrition is not of a temporary nature, and is due rather to
societal structural reasons, such as lack of child spacing, family instability,
major dependence on diamond mining, roads that are impracticable for trucks,
dysfunction of the market for produce, deforestation, difficult access to
arable land, and the depressed state of agricultural production.
We will work with 34 health centers for nutrition
education and detection and care of the acute cases. We expect to care for more
than 4,500 cases. The project is gigantic, costing about USD 800,000 over 8
months but it is likely to be prolonged.
However, there are major gaps, such as the lack of a
direct approach to the structural causes, and lack of provisions for food for
accompanying mothers. We are trying to fill some gaps, such as providing family
planning education and making at least the basic family planning supplies
available and providing media back up.
These projects are stimulating, as finally people realize
that malnutrition is very real here and are trusting us to take it on a large
scale, but also frightening, as one can see how everyone underestimates the
complexity of the undertaking.
We need your prayers, and if possible, volunteers or
students for a practice period. These can help to keep steering the activity to
be focused and truly saving lives. We need authoritative visitors who can help
push for a more structural approach.
These nutrition projects will be accompanied in some
areas by a food security effort by FAO. However, besides the fact there will be
geographic gaps, the effort is too timid. Both regions are under increasing
stress of major proportions, as Congolese people driven from Angola keep
arriving, and impoverished economic migrants come back. Last week, one border region of Luiza
received well over 10,000 people, many ill and famished.
No one knows where it will stop, because about 400,000
Congolese migrated illegally to Angola for diamond mining and an equal number
went to the mining regions in Congo.
All these people find themselves now without means. They should be prime
candidates for new agricultural efforts, or else the local people and the
migrants will fall together in a profound famine. So we are girding ourselves
for a major push for the main season. Unfortunately, our Canadian support is
diminished by 20% due to fluctuations in the Canadian dollar exchange rate with
the US $. We will approach BTC and maybe JICA to see whether we can, with God’s
help, mobilize more resources. We pray this time the climate will collaborate,
as for two years there have been only mis-harvests.
This is the season of reckoning in education. We are
expecting that where we provided retraining of the teachers, performance may be
improved.
In His love
Jean, Lazare and Cécile
Contributions to Butoke in Canada can be sent trough
Real Lavergne, Canadian International Development Agency, 200 Promenade du
Portage, Gatineau Quebec, Canada, K1A
0G4.
Contributions in the USA can be made payable to H.
Branch Warfield, 13801 York Rd., V-3, Cockeysville, MD, 21030 marked “for
Butoke” or to Maryland Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Rd., Baltimore,
MD 21286, USA, also marked “for
Butoke.” Contributions to Maryland P C
for Butoke may be tax deductible in the USA.
Contributions in the U K can be sent through Paul Evans, 5 Westville
Ave., Ilkley, LS29 9AH, United Kingdom.