It had been almost 25 years since I saw a child with severe malnutrition.

In fact, it was during the Ethiopia famine in the mid ‘80s. These kids have orange hair, stick-thin arms and legs, and swollen bellies. They often don’t survive without careful management. You can’t just hand them a cup of milk and porridge.

During a recent clinic with a visiting medical team in our new community of Suki, we found one small girl, severely malnourished. We had chosen to work in Suki because it has one of the most marginalized groups and some of the sickest and poorest people in the country. Still, this little girl was extreme even for children in this community. She looked like the famine poster child. We sent her to the hospital and after a few days plus about $40 for all her care, she was well enough to return home.

House Calls
When the little girl got out of the hospital, Danny, our project manager, and I did a follow-up visit. We found the mother, who was abandoned by her husband for another woman, living in one room of a mud and tin building, which is pretty typical for Suki. Also typical in most Ethiopian homes are icons or a poster of Mary if they are Orthodox Christians, or a poster of Mecca and some Koranic verses if they are Muslim.

And even the very poorest people have furniture in their houses. By contrast, this mother had almost nothing: two mattresses in one corner on the mud floor, a busted up cabinet, and nothing on the walls. The baby sat on the floor eating a potato.

Building trust with people here takes time, so digging out the real story and facts is often hard. As Danny quizzed the mother about herself, he received vague answers. The little girl was clearly stronger, but still not getting enough nutrition. Danny and I agreed this needed follow up.

New Community, New Hope We’re thankful that the extreme condition of this little girl is not representative of Ethiopia or Addis Ababa. The health and well-being of Ethiopians in general is improving. One of the reasons that we’re able to expand our work to Suki is because we’ve seen huge improvements in our other communities. More than half of the families we have worked with now support themselves. More than 300 people with AIDS have gone from being destitute, and in most cases dying, to being healthy and working to support themselves and their families.

Please pray for us as we expand our ministry into Suki. One of the things we will do as we start is a child health and nutrition survey. Pray for wisdom and creativity in how to go about this. With God’s help, we hope to bring His healing mercies and the gospel to this new community.