Double Happiness - World Renew

(MALAWI) When I have friends who are pregnant with twins, I am always excited. I watch the babies grow and develop, enjoy the funny companionship between the siblings, and admire their matching outfits.

It is double the fun and cuteness. In Chinese, we would say “double happiness (雙喜).” While twins may be celebrated back home, I am not sure how much they are being celebrated in the Malawian family that I met today. I’ve seen the mother before when I visited the clinic. I try to visit the clinics in Mphunzi on Tuesdays to observe their programs with moderately and severely malnourished children. On Tuesday mornings, the local women walk as far as 8 km to the clinic—sometimes walking more than 2 hours to attend.

Their children’s weight, height, and arm circumference are measured, recorded, and tracked. This information is then compared to their age, and health workers can assess whether the child is moderately malnourished or severely malnourished. The children who are moderately malnourished are given a corn-soy flour mix which the mother takes home to feed the baby. Those that are severely malnourished are given a week’s supply of ready-to-use therapeutic food which is made from a fortified peanut butter paste that is rich in vitamins and packaged to look like a granola bar.

I remember seeing this mother of twins a month ago when I visited Mphunzi with a Chicago church group. I noticed her because she was the only one with two children: one strapped to each side of her body. She was a tiny woman, a little less than five feet tall and carrying two babies who appeared to be around four months old. Because I was with ten visitors, we ran out of time to talk with this mom. On this second trip, I had all the time in the world.

I soon found out from the mom that her twins are actually a year old, and decided it would be good to give her a ride home to save her the 2-hour walk with two babies and a bag of food that should last 14 days. It would also give me a chance to see where she lived and find out more about her story.

Slowly, these facts sink in: her 8-year-old is working away from home; her husband left her alone with huge responsibilities; she lives in a house that we wouldn’t store old clothes in; she is competing with stronger men for piecemeal jobs in her area. Even though she attends a local church and is a part of this village, she is still alone and without much support

As we walked up to her house after the short drive to her village, a group of children gathered around us who were very curious about the Chinese-American who was visiting them. I found out that the woman lived alone in what seemed like a 10×10 foot square house. It was divided into three rooms, with dried straw and old plastic sheets on the roof to protect it from the rain. There were gaps in the roof where the straw had worn thin, and while it would protect her family for now, I was sure that when the rains came, she would stay just as dry by standing underneath a tree. I’ve heard the rains here are like the monsoons that I am familiar with—sometimes raining for a week straight. I asked her if she had any plans to repair the roof; she shook her head. She sat outside her house as I asked her questions about her story. Her husband left her, and now she lives alone with her two toddlers. She does piecemeal work in the fields to survive. It is easier to find day labor during the rainy season, since there is much work to be done in the field. When she is working, an older mother figure watches the twins. She also has a small piece of land which she was able to plant with maize and beans.

This year she was able to harvest four bags of maize (200 kg) and 3 kg of beans. The harvest has already been consumed, and she has nothing left. These days she depends on her piecemeal work to earn some money so that she can buy maize flour to make porridge: maize flour, water, and salt. During our conversation, she revealed that she actually has a total of five children. The other three live elsewhere. The middle two live with a relative in another village. The oldest, a son, is at work, herding cows at a farm that is a 2-hour walk from where she lives. That boss takes care of her son now. Occasionally, he is able to send some money home to help her. None of her children attend school. The older three children are just 4, 6, and 8 years old.

Slowly, these facts sink in: her 8-year-old is working away from home; her husband left her alone with huge responsibilities; she lives in a house that we wouldn’t store old clothes in; she is competing with stronger men for piecemeal jobs in her area. Even though she attends a local church and is a part of this village, she is still alone and without much support. Her twins just graduated from severely malnourished status to moderately malnourished status the day that I visited the Mphunzi clinic. I wonder how long their improvements will last or if the children will continue to grow adequately. I admire her strength to continue to push on. I had already taken an hour of her time, and I didn’t want to bother her anymore.

I thanked her for her willingness to talk with me, and left. I walked around the village a bit taking note of what was there; the potato field growing in the now-dry river bed and the outdoor shared latrines. I inspected a shallow well which the village depends on for water when the borehole is dry. I wondered about vegetable gardens and other ideas that could help her and those in similar situations. I really don’t have concrete answers. She faces so many challenges.

I’m glad that World Renew is starting a stunting and malnutrition project in this area. This mother would be one of the women we hope to help. The project aims to address malnourishment through health and agriculture interventions and is funded in part by the Canadian government's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. We want to help people choose to eat more nutritious food consistently and improve the way they grow their food. Through cooking clubs in the villages, women come together to learn what nutrients they should include in their diet, the ways to prepare food to maximize their nutritional value, and to share the food they have cooked together so that their families can eat a nutritious meal.

The agricultural interventions would demonstrate how they can increase the quality and retain the moisture in their soil through the use of compost and cover crops. Through the distribution of quality seeds, families can also increase their harvest. As we implement this project, she will be in the back of my mind.

How can this project serve her? How will this project benefit her so that raising her twins will not be an overwhelming struggle, instead a joy and blessing—her double happiness?

Prayers:

We have not secured all the needed financial resources for the agricultural interventions of this project. We appreciate your prayers about this and for the project itself. Please pray for her and those in similar situations.

Blessings,