Be the Cause

Author: Stacey Blaschke

Letter of thanks from the Akado Clinic

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This is a letter I received by email today. It is both a note of appreciation for the three organizations involved in this project: Be the Cause, HEART and the Power of Love and also a description of the dire circumstances facing the clinic and the community of Mbita, which they serve.

Note: If you are interested in the lastest news about this project go to http://www.bethecause.org/hopeheartandlove

Dear Stacey,

Kindly accept our sincere and heart felt appreciations and gratitude to Be the cause, HEART, Hope and Power of Love organizations of your kindness and generosity which will go along way in alleviating human suffering and saving lives.

Neither words nor statistics can adequately capture the human tragedy of poorest elderly widows grieving of their dying orphaned-grand children from malaria without any hope in their lives in our project area

In Mbita, over 153 vulnerable elderly widows over 67 years are learning to be mothers to their orphaned-grand children, about 30 years after they had their last babies.

These orphaned grand children are more vulnerable to malaria which is highly prevalent in the are and are ever sickly and dying while their elderly grannies does not know what to do about it.

Still engulfed with repugnant cultural peculiarities, the elderly widows associate malaria symptoms, illness and deaths with witch craft and have no means of taking their ill children to Health Care Centers due to their inability to walk and therefore result to traditional self-medication which are irrelevant and ineffective often leading to loss of lives

Under the current situation, these ageing foster parents (widows) are neglected or ignored, since only “pregnant mothers” are entitled to Nets, despite the fact that immune system of the aged widows are weak and that they are poorest and marginal families. Homes visits to these elderly foster parents in Aids-ravaged Mbita area is horrifying and traumatizing. Watching helpless young orphaned children lying and vomiting in the scorching sun with their poor disabled, aged caretakers crying or shedding tears is the most traumatizing situation Akado Clinical Team experience in our daily work.

“I would rather die than seeing these my grand children dying and there is nothing I can do about it,” says Lewnida, a widow aged about 73 years.

But many elderly widows like Lewnida, have myriad of ill-health problems too large families with over 10 orphaned children who have had both parents die and their homesteads clattered with graves all over every where.

These orphan children under the custody of ageing foster parents live under pathetic conditions of poor hygiene and sanitary conditions, stunting hunger, poor shelter and acute lack of access to health care/services.

The elderly poor widows have no source of income and solely rely and live on the mercy of their God and relatives which is quite unpredictable.

Some widows like are over burdened and easily exploit by their casual employers. “Since my husband’s death, I have tried best working for my neighbor in a scorching sun all the days to enable my children survive, but I suddenly lost two of my daughters to Malaria. Today, I am taking care of my husband and two daughter’s graves………… but there isn’t much i could do to save them”.

This elderly widow’s two daughters live could have been saved with one mosquito net costing about $8.00

With as little as $8.00 you can greatly “save the live” of at least two desperately needy orphan children, give hope to them and increase their survival opportunities by at least 50%.

These ageing widows and young children are desperately in need of your help and shall continue waiting in hope for your kindness and generosity in “order to survive”

Please, “donate a Net and save a life” through be the cause, Hope Power of Love organizations and Akado Medical Clinic will ensure its open, transparent and timely distribution to the deserving needy cases, maintenance of nets and start an Income Generating Activity (Mosquito Nets Making) for the elderly widows at Mbita to raise funds for their families

May God bless all those involved in this vital project to desperate needy orphaned children below 5 years and their ageing foster parents.

Mountain Meditations – Sacred Spaces

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A mountain is nature’s fortress, strong and stationary, withstanding the pounding of fierce storms, the burning of the sun’s rays; a mountain can also be a place of rest, a place containing the caress of a gentle breeze and the kiss of soft rain.

Once experienced Machu Pichu is a sacred place that never leaves you. It is a mountain, at an elevation thousands of feet above sea level, remotely located in the Peruvian jungle; a place securely situated high up in the sky, where it seems earth ends and the heavens begin. It is where the air thins dramatically and unaccustomed to the height, one’s lungs stretch for a little more breath; where a short hike becomes a major expedition as the heart pounds after only a few steps. This is a silent, still place entered by foot via the Gate of the Sun at the end of the ancient footpath known as the Inca trail. If one listens carefully the light, lithe footsteps of the runners who once used this as a supply pathway can still be heard. This site, semi-encircled by the magnificent snow covered, towering range of awe inspiring Andes, consists of a valley, at whose side stand two related mountains. These paternal protectors, father, Machu and son, Huayna, reverently gaze toward each other, embracing this basin creating a space of safety. This place of timeworn stone relics and remnants of buildings, when seen from above, forms the shape of a magnificent condor, with wings open, preparing to soar.

This is where I go to find myself, it is the place I choose to meditate. When I can’t go to the mountains I use my imagination to take me to this sacred space; whether in my mind or in nature, here is where I begin, I picture this place, close my eyes and slowly I breathe the mountain into me and in that moment we are one and the same.

–Stacey

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