This picture above, brings good news!!!!! It is a test result of a HIV test of one of our children. We still get children who are at risk, their parents are HIV+ and we don't know their status. Every child which come to Amecet and we know that the parents are HIV+, needs too be tested for HIV. Also children who are found or who were abandoned, need to be tested, because we don't know the HIV status of the parents. Every time there is that tension, when I go for the results. I know what it will mean to the child if the result is positive... The child will be started on triple HIV treatment and that is for life!!!! Some children come from a difficult background en we are not sure if the parents manage to give the child every day their ARV medication. When the child was abandoned, and we can't find the relatives of the child, it will be very difficult to find a foster family who wants to adopt the child..... So it is a tense moment when I get the results from the nurse......
Yesterday I went for two results and I also took two baby's to get the test done. One baby, her parents were both HIV+, the mother had died after the delivery, but she had always faithfully swallowed her ARV's. The second child, about him we got the information, that his father was HIV positive, but he was killed some months ago and the mother was HIV negative. So the baby should be negative too. But there was so much confusion among the relatives, we don't know if this information was right, the baby is not really doing very well, so we felt we should test him to know the truth. In about one month we will know the truth!!
But........ now the good news comes.....
All three brothers on this picture are HIV negative!!!!
They are all three with us in Amecet. There were many problems at home and their parents are HIV positive and are not really taking their ARV on the right way.
They were all three at high risk: the oldest, Edmond (6 yr.) and the middle one Dennis (3 yr.) were tested negative and yesterday I got the results of Emmanuel (11 months) and he was also HIV negative!!!!
Knowing a bit about their home situation, this is such a good news!!
This is Messach (right), we was a premature baby and we had to wait with the test... During that time he was on medication, because his mother was also HIV positive. His test came back negative!!!! Good news!!
The baby above (left) is Emmanuel (yes another one), he is also a high risk baby, both his parents were HIV positive, his mother died after the delivery and the father committed the next day suicide. He came in Amecet when he was 1 week old and he hadn't gotten the special medicines.. We started him on those medicines, but Emma didn't do well. On this picture his weight is 2.6 kg and he was already 6 weeks old. He could only gain 5 or 10 gram a week!! We struggled with him, the test was already taken, we were waiting for the results, but we were worried about him. We took him to the pediatrician, she told us to start the ARV medication already, while waiting for the results of the test. After 10 days, we started to see a change, he didn't vomit so much, no more diarrhea he was drinking better and he gained a bit more....he is 3.2 now....
When I went yesterday for his result, I was sure that his result would come back positive...... but no, it came also back HIV negative!!!!!! The doctor told us to stop the ARV's and we hope and pray that Emma will continue his way upwards!!!
You can imagine that we were very happy for Emma.....
And now the sad news.........
On the picture at the right, you see Daniel, he is 6 months old. He was brought to Amecet, together with his brother, Sam, who is now almost 17 months old. Both were severe malnourished, sick and weak.. They started to pick up, with the treatment we gave, and started to play, smile and Sam started to crawl.
Last night, or better this morning at around 3 am, the night duty found him dead in his bed. The nurse came running, but he was gone. The shock was great, he was not sick, no symptoms, he was only a bit slow in everything. we are really very sad about this big loss.
Simon went early in the morning (after calling each other at 3 am..) to the family in the village to tell them, we could not just go there with the coffin in the car, we needed to give them time to adjust.
Around 11.30 we drove with the coffin and some staff to the village to hand over the body to the family. I had printed pictures from Sam and Daniel to give to the mother. They were so sad and very quiet..
A day with happy and sad news, like so many days in Amecet, we thank God for the privilege we have to be able to minister to those precious little one's and even their families. We lay them in His hands, and Dan is in a good place now, He is loved and cared for by his Heavenly Father!
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