Chimemwe's story

Chimwemwe Phiri is just 11 months old.  She is shown here with her Granny Hilda, who has looked after her since her mother died when she was two months old.  Hilda still has two of her own children living at home (the youngest is 11), as well as Chimwemwe. She has no job and relies on small amounts of help from her older children.  Hilda started to worry when little Chimwemwe wasn’t putting on any weight, and one of her eyes started to be very sore and swollen.  She took her the health clinic and she was diagnosed with TB.  Luckily it had been caught in time or she could have ended up blind. 

Chimwemwe is eating better and gaining weight now.   Hilda lives a long way from the nearest clinic so it is a great help to her that the caregivers from Bwafwano visit every day to give Chimwemwe her medicine, bathe her eye with salt water and give Hilda advice on looking after her.  They showed me how they crush the tablet in water and feed it to her on a spoon.  It must taste horrible, but Chimwemwe didn’t cry.  Sometimes they stay for a few hours playing with her, giving her a massage and feeding her just to give Hilda a rest. I got the impression playing with Chimwemwe was their favourite job of the day!