West Africa Journal

You hear urgent banging on your door so you run to open it. Outside is a ragged little boy. Blood is dripping down his leg, pooling on your front step. What would you do?

If you go the photo album you will see some pictures of a little boy that we call Little John. It was the scenario in the paragraph above. Last month some of the Dove kids found him along the road, bleeding from a bad arm wound so they brought him to Judy for some first aid. When he got hurt today, his family again brought him to us for help.

This second wound was very serious and required stitching. We loaded him up in our 4 wheel drive and took him to the former UN hospital, now having been turned back to the Choithram Foundation of India. The doctor cleaned the wound and sewed it closed with 5 stitches. He then gave Little John a tetanus shot and antibiotics. While hauling water for his mother, Little John had fallen and cut his leg open on a piece of rusty tin that is used for housing for really poor people and for roofing. In the picture of Little John and his family you will his mom on the left (hope the photo doesn’t offend anyone, that is how they dress here). On the right in the background are two uncles. All the rest of the kids are his siblings. The tiny tin house in the background is where they all live.

Last month we shared the story of how we had so many community people coming to us needing help for food and medicines. The rate of unemployment is so high and there is no social structure to help the poor. A family in Ontario held bake sales and raised funds for us to use to help the community around us. Little John is our first recipient. If you would like to donate to this fund go to our How You Can Help page or write our Canadian office. Label your donation Community Help.

If we hadn’t helped Little John, the wound would have infected, ulcerated and even worse. The family poured salt on the wound thinking that would stop infection. They also tied two very tight tourniquets above and below the wound to stop the “poison”(infection) from spreading through his body. If they hadn’t brought him to us right away you can probably imagine the horrors he would have suffered.

God put us in this country and this community to be a light. It feels really good to be able to help.

Filed under: Children update, Sierra Leone on June 2nd, 2006