Baby backpacks

Babies were everywhere during HOPE Center’s monthly child welfare clinic day this past Tuesday. This is a time when mothers bring their children to get weighed and updated with their immunizations. When I wasn’t busy administering vitamin A droplets or recording medical data in the Center’s record books, I had the chance to play with some pretty cute kids.

For the majority of the day, I held three-month old Christopher on my back in an impromptu “backpack” made out of fabric (his twin brother, Carlos, meanwhile napped in my arms- see photo). This is the common way women hold children as young as 1 month and as old as 7-8 years. It was so much fun and their mothers definitely appreciated the break!

I wish I could say that the legions of young children that I have encountered during my time in Ghana are as cute and carefree as the little guys on my back. However, I have also met some pretty sick and malnourished children during my time here. One such incident that was particularly impactful was the young mother who came to the Center holding her 8 pound child. This would have been perfectly inconsequential had the child not already been a year old. What should have been a healthy, happy toddler looked instead like a sick, frail, and severely malnourished infant. As I rubbed his back, I couldn’t help but think that he weighs as much as I once did at birth.

I think that this experience gets to the core of public health: a critical examination of the socio-economic factors that create a system where one child thrives and another one suffers. There are many issues influencing this. Suffice to say, it has only served to strengthen my resolve to help find permanent, sustainable solutions that will equalize the health care playing field.

The childhood nutrition program that the HOPE Center runs is a good start. This program enables mothers with the knowledge and skills that they need to cook wholesome meals for their children. We have already made significant progress in developing the program to reach out to more people (hence, the focus of my research is to learn about pregnant women’s nutritional practices and find ways to tailor the project to them). We at the Center firmly believe that everyone has the right to the opportunity to live a long, healthy life. One precious child at a time.