Yesterday, TTL celebrated nine years of service
to the children and families of Eastern Lesotho. The idea for TTL can be traced to a cold, rainy Lesotho
night in 2004. A small child, orphaned by AIDS, was left outside in a
thunderstorm to die, a desperate move by relatives unable to feed another
mouth. Neighbors heard the child's cries and brought him to Mokhotlong's
social worker. Later that evening, the social worker knocked at the door
of former Peace Corps volunteer Ken Storen, asking for help. Ken
suggested that we "better buy some diapers," and the TTL safe home
was born.
In the following months, Ken and his now wife,
Colleen Dunst, also a former Peace Corps volunteer, filled a home of children
impacted or orphaned by HIV. Ken, Colleen, and a dedicated Basotho staff
committed to a vision in solidarity with Lesotho's families: that every child
deserved every chance to survive, regardless of the odds, with proper
nutrition, medication, and loving care. From that vision TTL blossomed, one
child at a time.
In the past nine years, TTL has remained true to
Ken’s vision of one child at a time
and in doing so, TTL has provided support to over 1200 children to date. Just yesterday, as the workday was
about to end, we received a birthday surprise: three infants arrived referred to the safe home by Mokhotlong
Government Hospital after being diagnosed with severe malnutrition.
Two of the infants are six-week-old twins
weighing in at 2.2kg and 2.8kg; they weigh only a few grams more than they did
at birth. Their heads loom large
over their skeletal bodies. Their
mother is unable to keep up with their feeding needs and cannot afford formula
to supplement their diet; she did the best that she could and supplemented
their feedings with porridge. As
we’ve seen time and again, however, mixed feedings do not provide adequate
nutrition for newborns.
The third infant weighs just over 3kg and
is 4 ½ months old. Her vacant eyes
watched as we weighed and measured her, she was too weak to offer many cries of
protest. She is an orphan, being
looked after by family members and has been stricken with repeat bouts of
diarrhea.
We are thankful that these three infants, along
with the others that TTL has served, will receive care and support that will
improve their odds of survival to their fifth birthday, and beyond. We celebrate the safe home intakes, the
family reunifications and the graduations from the TTL program, one child at a time.
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| One of the three newcomers to the TTL safe home |
1 comment:
My son was the reason TTL was born. I thank Ken for his support and taking my idea of initiating this facility which has made Mokhotlong the best place for a child to live. I wish my son's name can always be remembered at TTL.I am planning to take him to the Mokhotlong so that he can know this history.
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