23 Trips and Counting

Prior to their 23rd trip to Ghana, Ann and Terry (project coordinators) reflected on all that has taken place over the years that they have been visiting this bleak and barren part of the world.

Ann says…There have been so many changes to the King’s Village since my first visit in 2001 when we laid the foundation stone and dreamed only of a school for the children of this poor and uneducated part of the world. Could we possibly have seen or believed all that has now been achieved since then through the vision and dedication of the staff of the King’s Village.

Electricity has come, all be it on and off quite a lot of the time! Water flows 2 days of the week which we store in huge poly tanks for the days it’s not running. There are now 383 children in the school, including 16 children in the new nursery which has opened, meaning that the younger children of the staff are catered for.

The hospital saw 20407 out-patients last year, with 5206 admissions in 64 beds. They delivered 1170 babies in the year with 1 maternal death and 31 infant deaths.
The Nutrition Centre in 2008 had 136 children admitted with the loss of no child.  In 2019 it had 317 children admitted with 16 deaths.
It had its busiest year to date seeing the numbers rise continuously, in fact last February there was the highest numbers of 52 children in at any one time. Obviously, the HD unit has had a big impact on the numbers but other factors are also playing their part.
To date as I write this, there are 37 in the centre and 6 on the admission in the HD unit.

Three years ago, UNICEF cut out its supplies of therapeutic foods to the Ghana health service, meant for the treatment of acute malnutrition. The knock-on effect of this is quite severe.
Malnutrition continues to surge in most districts of northern Ghana as poor diets and infection exacerbate the situation. It has ground the work of those nutrition officers working in the Ghana health service to a halt and all CMAM (Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition) have closed down which means the King’s Village Nutrition Centre has become the only hope for these children.
In addition, there are other threats that add to the increasing numbers of malnourished children.
In 2019, in three northern regions there was fighting, livelihoods and food stocks were destroyed leading to hunger, disease and malnutrition for the most vulnerable. In fact, the district reports for these areas Karaga, Nanumba and Nakpanduri have reported a huge rise in deaths of these children and they have called for the government to intervene.
Recently, they contacted the King’s Village to see if we can help. This is a very difficult situation as we are already underfunded for the work we are doing in our own district, without travelling a further 6 hours to some of these areas.
We have said that we are willing if they can get the most acute cases to us, we will surely do our best.

You have to understand that the King’s Village Nutrition Centre is the only one of its kind in the WHOLE of the northern regions of Ghana. Any other centres that are still running are day clinics that give out what help, advice and limited resources they can.

The situation is critical and to be honest unless something happens to reintroduce the foods, Plumpy'Nut (a peanut-based paste for treatment of severe acute malnutrition) and the rehydrates, the death toll is only going to increase.
For our clinic we are having to buy in the Plumpy'Nut and rehydrates from manufacturers which has impacted hugely on our running costs.
We are going to look this year at how we can make the unit more sustainable longer term.

Having said all that, the amazing stories of children who came in so severely malnourished with little expectation that they would survive yet fought hard and came back from the brink of death is what inspires us and motivates us to keep going.

Last year funds were received to build a new unit, based on the style of the Nutrition Centre, for children being rescued from child slavery. The unit is nearly completed and will then be kitted out, staff interviewed and employed, and training undertaken. Yet another part of the amazing work that is happening at the King’s Village.

What of the communities? Some now have electricity - those that are situated near the road, which is still a dusty dry track in the hot season, but often becomes virtually impassable in places in the rainy season. Those more remote villages are still without electricity and stand little hope of getting it any time soon.
Piped water is still not available to numbers of the villages, many still walking long distances to fetch water from the dams that the animals’ bathe and drink from. When you see the colour of this water you wonder how they ever survive. Some now have boreholes drilled by various charities and agencies, the only problem being that the mechanisms often break and there is little follow up to help maintain them.
Latrines are still few and far between and the use of the bush is without doubt still the most popular way of going to the toilet. Stagnant water is still apparent in every village, a wonderful breeding ground for the mosquitoes.

The local remedies are still used first if anyone is sick meaning so many arrive at the hospital in a far more severe condition than necessary. However, the work of the King’s Village has brought change, so many of those children who started 10 – 15 years ago have now passed through senior high school and gone on to university. Some have even returned to the King’s Village to work in the medical centre and some in the school. These children would never have had that opportunity but for the work of the school in this area.

So many lives saved through the dedication of the medical staff and the work and commitment of the staff at the Nutrition Centre. There’s no way you can quantify in human cost, the impact of this on the surrounding areas. So, while change in our world is social media and the impact of the internet, here it’s measured by the saving of lives and the bringing of hope to those who otherwise would have no hope of ever rising above the poverty that they were born into.

You have all been part of this journey, and all I can say for those who can’t say it to you themselves, is a huge ‘Thank You’.

Ann Carpenter