Happy Holidays!!!!
We missed out on writing the Nov blog because we were either
on the road going to Congo or in Congo working.
We spent the month without internet, (and other modern amenities), and
except for a brief stint into Bukavu for an afternoon to catch up with family
we were in the deep village.
This time we started off by interviewing for a new translator. We found out Mr. Aganzi was going to be leaving us to go off to the big city, Bukavu, so for the first few days we were busy trying to find a new translator. We found Mr. Tonto who was a perfect translator.
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| Mr. Tonto always with French to English book in hand. |
It was work full on! We had patients in the morning and then
later in the afternoon but the middle of the day when the adults were off tending
the farms, we would go and visit the schools to give anti-malarial, worm and
scabies medicines to the kids.
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| Mr. Ank giving the teacher anti-malaria medicine |
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| Mr. Tonto and Mr. Aganzi giving worm and anti-malaria medicine to the kids |
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| Michelle giving scabies meds to the kids |
In March 2014 when I first went to open the homeopathic
clinic in Congo we were invited to come to one primary school to give these
three medicines and of course we agreed.
Scabies is rampant in the village as nutrition is so poor, most families
eat fufu, (cornmeal mixed with water until its hardened), the staple of their
diet. Within 6 days the scabies started drying up on the heads of the kids.
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| our first set of neighborhood kids to get scabies meds in March 2014 |
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| only a little alopicia where the scabies used to be |
On getting back to Congo the first thing I did was visit the
school, I wanted to know if the scabies had come back and how many children had
missed school because of malaria. What a
surprise to find that the only children with scabies in the school were 5 new
cases, kids that had started school only after we had given the medicine. The headmistress was also very please when
she told us that of the 930 children in the school only 57 were unable to take the final exams, due to lack of
school fees and not to intelligence, this being the year of lowest number of absences
she’s seen since working at the school. What a triumph for both Zuri Medicine and
the kids!!
The Superintendent of Schools at the local school board has now
asked us to work in all the schools ridding the children of scabies, worms and
giving anti-malaria medicine. We were able to cover 5 schools while we were in DRC
this time but word is spreading and we are getting request from other schools in
other districts to come and do the same effort for their children. What an AMAZING project we’ve got going on, we
will be happy to!
Check out these cute faces!!
It was rainy season when we visited Congo and so we saw many
malaria cases. At least 50-60 percent of
daily patients were suffering from malaria. We asked everyone to come back after 3 days on
the Malaria X medicine to report how they were feeling. Most were feeling well enough to go back to
the fields after the first 24 hours and by day 3 everyone was back up on their
feet and about their normal routine. This is good for a community where farming
is the livelihood and during rainy season everyone needs to be out tending the
farms. We will have to restock on our Malaria X medicine when we go back to
Congo in the future.
As we do treat many people we can’t help but run across
cases that touch our hearts.
Here is a young girl suffering from epilepsy, she’s only 13
years old and is no longer enrolled in school because of the number of
epileptic attacks she suffers daily. Her family is also poor and cannot afford
the school fees. She came to see us as
soon as we started working in the clinics, and we were able to find a good
remedy, Cuprum, for her. Her dad very
happily reported that she’s only had one seizure this whole month. He is worried that if she runs out of medicine
she may start getting seizures again. It
was a hard sell to convince him she would be fine till I come back in Feb/March. Just like any parent he’s worried about his
kid. Can we help to send her back to school? School fees are $200USD for the
year.
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| 13 year old with daily epileptic attacks |
Look at how cute this little girl is!! She has a skin rash
that covers most of her body, but it didn’t stop her from being inquisitive and
exploring my office. Finally mom was
able to get her from under the table and up on her lap so I could take a photo.
In the new year, Zuri Medicine will be moving to a new place
on blogspot to make it easier to find. zurimedicine@blogspot.com look out
for us and follow us there.
Help Zuri Medicine to help kids like these. Our work depends on YOUR generosity. 100
percent of your donations go to helping schools children, and poor families in
the villages who can’t afford health care. Remember your donations are all tax
deductible.
You can send
your tax deductible checks to:
Bertha Mae
Williams Foundation Inc.
3811 Ave H
Brooklyn
N. Y. 11210
Don’t forget
to add Zuri Medicine in the memo line so it can be directed accordingly.
Zuri
Medicine Christmas Wish List.
Send a teen to school – 200USD.
Help us to get back to Congo in Feb/March – Airfare 200USD
round trip
Continued travel by road 120USD round trip
Visa fees- Congo - $150USD for 2 month visa
$100USD for 3 country visa to travel through Rwanda and
Uganda where we pick up the Congo visa.
Also, we would like to work in the refugee camps, if you
have contacts in the UN or in the refugee camps in Congo, please get us in touch.
Thank you and have a Happy Holiday!
