Guest Blog: Bekah Ochs just returned from Ghana as part of the medical mission team. Once again, this beautiful country taught her so much.
While in Ghana, we have times of joy and healing. We get to see patients who have never been to a doctor before. We get to give glasses to people who for years have not been able to read or see far away. We get to pray over and share the gospel with every person that comes through the clinic doors.
But it is also a time of immense sorrow. Hundreds of people sit in the hot sun all day, hoping for a chance to see a doctor. Broken bones that have grown together because they haven’t been set properly. Wounds that are eating away at flesh. Babies that are malnourished. The list goes on and on. Each one is a heartbreak to us.
But one specifically that touched our hearts was Baby Daniel. And today, I’m writing this as a plea for someone to stand up and fight for him. Baby Daniel came through our clinic in Bodada. He is four months old, and yet is about the size of a newborn. He has been severely malnourished due to the fact that his mother is unable to breastfeed and doesn’t have the money to buy formula. In the mother’s attempt to feed him, she was giving him corn porridge, which is ground up maize soaked in water.
As a result, his body is small and fragile. His skin has lost color in places. His wrist is about the size of my thumb. When our team doctor saw Daniel, he said that unless Daniel gets formula and nutrients in him, he will only survive a month. We told the mother to return the next day and that we would have formula. This is something very few Ghanaians purchase as it is a privilege only a few can afford. That next day we had baby Daniel and his mother stay at the clinic for several hours as we were able to give him his first bottle of formula. He was hesitant at first, but oh, what a joy it was to see his tiny mouth suck faster and faster as he realized the formula tasted good.
After his first bottle he began to perk up, and it was evident that even this little amount of nutrients was making this baby boy come back to life again.
Friends, we are pleading for the life of a baby who doesn’t have a voice. If you would like to help support Daniel, please sponsor him. Help provide formula so that he can continue to grow and be raised knowing that there are people around the world who love him and care for him. The cost to provide formula is only $80 a month. If you can’t do that, please donate monthly what you can. Email sydney@feedingtheorphans.org for details.
