Four Months Old and Only Four Pounds!

Not too many days pass without someone coming to the door asking for help.  Sometimes they are looking for work; sometimes medicine; sometimes food.  But today they were looking for help.
A man from an aldea (small village) where Rocky has shown the Jesus film came asking for our help.  He told us about a couple from his community who brought their baby into the Centro de Salud (Health Center) yesterday.  He didn't seem to know what the problem was nor did he think the couple knew, but the health workers were not letting them take the baby home.  He thought maybe the baby needed an operation and would have to go to San Cristobal.
Whenever I hear of a sick child, my heart aches.  I cannot think of a time when it is not right to help a child...so off we went to the Centro de Salud to see if we could figure out what was going on.  
When we arrived, I went to the office where I know a few of the ladies and asked if they knew anything about the baby who was admitted yesterday.  Right away they knew who I was referring to.  One of the women said to follow her and she took us in to see the baby and her dad.  I was shocked.  I don't think you ever get used to seeing severe malnutrition.
Laying on the bed was a tiny skeletal baby.  The health care worker proceeded to explain that the parents brought the baby in yesterday and she was despondent.  At four months of age, she weighed only 4 pounds.  She had pneumonia and was severely malnourished and dehydrated.  They put her on fluids and antibiotics and started giving her formula.  Apparently the mom hardly had any milk and so the child was slowly starving to death.
Now, the problem was how to continue providing formula for the baby (she is four months old and has not been given a name).  The clinic can provide one can of formula, but the family has to provide the next can.  They can alternate like this, but cannot provide all the formula for a family because they simply don't have enough. And...the baby can only stay in the clinic until it shows signs of recovery.  Then she has to return home with the parents who then are on their own to buy the formula.  

Now I have to rant a little...To buy a can of formula is completely out of reach for the average person here.  One can that lasts 3 days costs Q65 - more than a man earns in a full day of work.  3 days of work would provide milk for a week.  The average man in the aldeas around Chisec doesn't have regular work, so how is he supposed to buy this milk and provide for the rest of his family? Ugh!   

The health care workers shared that there is a program in San Cristobal where they take severely malnourished babies/children and nurse them back to health. The baby has to first get rid of her pneumonia before she can go to San Cristobal, but once there, the family doesn't have to pay for anything.  The challenge, although, is to convince the parents that it is the best thing for their child to go.  That is tough because what parents want to be separated from the child, even if it is only for a short time?
So, what do we do?  How can we help?  We can pray...which we did...and we can buy formula.  And, we can return and continue to monitor the progress of this nameless little one and trust the Lord to work out the details.