Early Thursday morning I got a message from our medical team reporting that one of our 3-year-olds woke up with soiled pajamas for no reason (it has never happened before). They cleaned her up and moved on with the day. A few hours later she started to shake like she had a high fever. They moved her quickly to the clinic where she had a full-on seizure (the first that we have seen), and again soiled herself. We assume that she had a seizure during the night, and that’s where the soiling came from.
She was taken to our local hospital (The Luke Commission) and has been admitted. I asked the medical team how many children we have with epilepsy because we have had three new diagnoses in the past couple of months. The percentage of people living with epilepsy in Canada and South Africa is 1%. The average in the US is 1.1%. We have 14 children out of 461, which is 3% — THREE times the average in neighboring and home countries.
I’ve often said that we need to partner with a research university or hospital for them to have a look at our statistics that just don’t seem right. But that’s not the disturbing news that I want to share today.
It is with deep sadness that our team has prayerfully come to the decision that we must stop accepting babies this year. We currently do not have monthly funding support for 159 children. This puts us in a very dire position because we have had to cut food budgets, activities, outings, repairs, hiring, etc. The cutbacks we have made in the past four months have been hard. We have cut deep and are now in a position where we have to say no.
“We are now in a position where we have to say no.”
Janine Maxwell
Since we made this decision last week, we have turned away a set of siblings (2 years and 4 months old) and a 9-month-old. It is tragic. I can’t be near Khosie when she has to say no, but she knows it is the only decision.
Nothing is easy here, and it seems that it is getting even harder when we can’t continue doing our core mission, knowing that it is “the least of these” who will suffer.
We need help.
Please message me if you can help in any significant way through a large financial gift, stocks, or a DAF.
If you can help on a smaller scale, please, please sign up to sponsor a child (or more) today using the links below.
Thank you.
Janine