A Rare Smile From Starving Tot

STARVING baby Claude smiles despite his frail hungry mum having no milk or food to feed him.

The seven month old malnourished tot showed The Star and Concern staff a moment of happiness before returning to coughs and cries for his mother to end his constant hunger.

“He is always hungry,” said mum Pelagie Mukashyaka (whose name means Courage) in the Nyantanga Health Centre about 200km south west of Rwanda's capital Kigali.

“I don't have enough food to eat myself, so I don't have enough milk to feed my baby,” she added.

The 38 year old mum brought her starving child to the health centre yesterday to be treated for malnutrition and under nourishment in a programme funded by Irish people through Concern.

Claude weighed just 5.9 kilos (13lbs) – which is way below the average of 8 kilos, or over 17lbs, for his age.

A shocking one in seven children die before their fifth birthday in Rwanda from malnutrition, which is caused by an unbalanced diet, usually due to poverty.

Mum Pelagie has four other children to feed (aged two to 16) and her family barely survive on small quantities of sweet potatoes and beans that she must harvest – while her husband earns their only income of just 65 cent a day.

Yesterday she walked for four hours uphill with malnourished Claude on her back, on what was a scorching hot day, to get to the health centre.

“I really hope that he will gain some weight and I hope to learn more about how to help improve his diet,” she said after Claude was seen by nurses trained by Concern.

Pelagie said she had not eaten yesterday, even after her four hour walk, and feeds her children whatever she can find, which was leaves from her bean plants on Tuesday night.

Another tragic mum, Christine Ntirivamunda, hopes her two year old baby, Benjamin, pulls through after he weighed just 6.9 kilos (15lbs), which was up from 6.3 kilos three weeks ago, when the average child his age weighs 28lbs.

Christine already lost her nine year old son, who died after he was sick for two days with what she believes was malaria.

The Star visited Concern's 'Community Management of Acute Malnutrition' programme where “model parents” in communities help other mums to cure their malnourished children.

Many parents previously thought malnourished children were poisoned.

Concern are supporting the malnutrition emergency initiative started by the Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2009, which has proved hugely successful.

This includes providing 'plumpy nut' nutrient paste and teaching mothers how to give their children a mixed healthy diet.

However, as 'model parent' Alivera told The Star: “Some families have enough food to provide the mixed diet, but others have nothing.”

To try and reduce this extreme poverty Concern have provided many families with goats, and they have also helped them set up community income supports, such as growing and selling mushrooms.

“A common cause of malnutrition is poverty. Concern is supporting households so they can lift themselves out of poverty,” said Concern's assistant country director Joanne Smyth.

The mushroom growing scheme – helped by volunteer farming expert Jean Claude Rwabuhungu – has already been a huge success in northern Rwanda where communities have seen a ten fold increase in monthly income.

Concern are supporting 37 government health centres, and since January 2009 they had 2,321 children under five admitted with severe acute malnutrition, and 3,818 moderate cases.

"This Concern programme, along with the Rwandan government, is saving the lives of young children like Claude," said Joanne Smyth.

Tot Saved At Deaths Door

EXTREME poverty brought this two month old Rwandan tot to deaths door – but a new health project funded by Irish people kept her alive.

Little Kwizera Rongin (4 months) had pneumonia - which is the biggest killer of children under five worldwide - and her young mother Clondette (27) feared it would kill her child.

“I was very scared,” she told The Star at her home in the poverty filled Mayaba village in Nyaruguru about 200km south west from the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Clondette's horror occurred just last week after the child developed a high fever and wouldn't feed.

After a few days she decided to go to the village community health worker, Cansilde Kampogo, who is one of 6,186 community workers trained with funds from Concern and US Aid to treat children for killer diseases like malaria and pneumonia.

“The child's breathing was way above normal so I gave her antibiotics, as well as drugs for diarrhea,” said the health worker.

The patients make a contribution pf 12 cent to the health worker to cover drug costs.

The child survived despite getting late treatment, and was happily feeding in his mums arms when visited by The Star and Concern staff yesterday.

“He made a huge recovery and is much better, thanks to the treatment,” said the relieved mum.

Some of her other children were coughing with a bronchial infection during our visit, but Clondette simply hasn't the means to bring them to a doctor.

Since Concern trained community members to become health workers and advisers in 2007 mothers like Clondette have tried to improve their poor living conditions to prevent children getting pneumonia and malaria.

This includes washing their ragged clothes more regularly, making children wash their hands regularly, boiling water for drinking and preparing more nutritious food.

Clondette said her family now sleep under mosquito nets to prevent them getting malaria, which kills one in six Rwandan children every year.

She also explained how her husband often goes without an evening meal because their small harvest does not produce enough food for the whole family.

Clondette and her family are so poor that they rarely ever eat meat.

To earn money to buy more food at markets her husband does public work as part of a government social welfare programme, for which he gets a payment of €26 a month.

He also tries to work on other fields for around 65 cent a day.

Community health worker Chantal Mukarubuga in the Nkima village said many mothers still carry sick children on their backs while they harvest their fields, because they have nobody to babysit them, and no money to pay them if they do.

She also said deaths from malaria in her region have dramatically fell since community health workers like her started to successfully treat children.

Old rituals like drinking banana beer and using herbal remedies to kill malaria have been replaced with medical treatment.

“Before I was trained there were so many cases of malaria,” said Chantal.

In the last 12 months 30,121 children under five were treated for pneumonia and 191,296 for malaria in Concerns six Rwandan districts by the community health workers they trained, and the recovery rate was 96 per cent.

Concern are currently in the process of providing villages in their six districts with rapid diagnostic tests, that after a simple test can tell in minutes if someone has malaria.

Witchcraft Orphan Desperate for Education

ORPHANED by “witchcraft” this desperate Rwandan teenager would give anything to finish her basic education.

But the shy 16 year old, who dreams of one day being a doctor, must stay at home with her older brother to farm for food to survive.

Alice Dushimiyunurennyi, who has never seen X-Factor or heard of Facebook, lost her mother when she was just nine and father at eleven.

She told The Star and members of the Irish aid agency Concern at the Cyendajuro primary school in Rwanda's rural Huye district, about 150km southwest of the capital Kigali, that her parents died of “witchcraft” - which can be the deadly AIDS virus.

Wearing an old Mickey Mouse t-shirt and sandals, Alice explained that she attended primary school for six years, but was forced to drop out by her older brother, who had become her guardian.

“I want to go to school and receive a good education to help build Rwanda, but my brother says I have to stay at home and work on the farm,” she said through an interpreter.

“I have to do the housekeeping, and harvest vegetables like sweet potatoes and beans for me and my brother to eat.

“I also do not have the means to pay for the materials I need for school, but would really like to finish my education and become a doctor to treat malaria and help others who are sick,” added the troubled teen.

Alice, who lives in a small home with her brother, said her older married siblings also want to try and sell their parents house so they can share the profits – which could leave her homeless.

School Principal Monique Mizitegeka said she will try and talk her brother into letting Alice attend school, through the Parent Teacher Committee - who are trained and supported by Concern, thanks to donations from people in Ireland.

She is one of tens of thousands Rwandan children who can't attend school because their families need them to work on their small patches of agricultural land in what is the most densely populated country in Africa.

Many children who do attend school rely on 'food aid,' while others are forced to collect grass so they can sell it to neighbours for their cattle or goats, so they can buy dinner with the earnings.

Everest, a 17 year old student head at Cyendajuro school, had to drop out of school in 2007 due to extreme poverty.

“I was living on the street and my parents wanted me to be at school, but could not support me,” he said.

He was brought back to school with the help of education representatives in the community trained by Concern.

He now expects to finish school to get a job so he can support his family, and also plans to get involved in politics and one day become the country's president.

Everest, who has never used a computer and who has never travelled outside his home district, said: “I want to help poor children get an education.

“My parents are happy that I am at school again, but it is a problem when the family has to pay for materials.

“Someday I would love to travel, but cannot right now.”

His school friend Edilonie Kuigirae (13) told The Star that to her being at school prevents her from having to fend for herself on the streets, and possibly get involved in prostitution.

Rwanda provides free education for nine years for its children, but they must pay to complete their secondary education and to attend university.

One of the countries main problems with getting children to school is the people's reliance on subsistence agriculture.

Over 80 per cent of people there live off the land, and rarely have any surplus left to sell, and even children who do attend school must go home to work on the land.

Cyendajuro School Principal Monique said Concern have hugely helped them reduce the high level of children dropping out or being forced to stay at home instead of going to class.

“There are many children who now attend school and will have a better future thanks to Concern,” she said.

The agencies assistant country director, Joanne Smyth, explained that they have funded the training of parents and teachers who act like supervisors ensuring children are in class and have the materials and assistance they need, such as uniforms and copy books.

“Our education programme of training Parent Teacher Committee representatives created a bridge between schools and communities to support better education for children,” said Ms Smyth.

The school

The new Cyendajuro primary school building has 965 students and 17 teachers in classrooms that have old strong wooden desks similar to what would have been used in Irish schools in the early and mid 20^th century.

There are often about 55 pupils in one class, and the school has limited resources, despite teaching a variety of subjects such as science and technology.

It also has no computers, despite the Rwandan government's aim for the country to become a knowledge based economy.

The school was built just after the end of the 1994 genocide that took 800,000 innocent lives and made 2 million people refugees in their own country.

Pupils there have reieved huge support due to the funds donated to Concern in Ireland, and yesterday they clapped and sang in thanks to their Irish donors.

Rwanda Facts

Landlocked mountainous Rwanda - known as the 'land of a thousand hills' - is about the size of Munster - about 26,000 square kilometres located in east central Africa.

It borders Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda - and has a temperate climate.

Rwanda has a population of just over 11 million people, a growth rate of 2.18 per cent, and is the most densely populated country in Africa.

Between April and July 1994 over 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu men, women and children where horrifically slaughtered in what was one of the most grotesque acts of organised genocide in world history.

Rwanda has made a massive recovery since the genocide in its security and economic development.

Over 150,000 people have HIV/AIDS and there is a prevalence rate of 2.8 per cent, down from 13 per cent in 2005.

Malaria and malnutrition remains to be one of the single biggest causes of deaths in Rwanda - infecting an estimated 900,000 a year, and in 2006 counted for 41 per cent of hospital deaths, and 42 per cent of them were children.

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