This story is a real heart breaker for me. The older woman you see in the pictures is Christine. Not only is she the grandmother to baby Sylvia, but she is also the cook at the school for our orphans and vulnerable children. She was so good to me when I was in Kenya that I had started to call her "mama Amanda".
Sylia is the daughter to her son, wherever he might be. Sylvia's mother died only a few months after giving birth to HIV/AIDS and Sylvia was left in the care of her grandmother (the other one). Without breast milk and a lack of nutrients entirely, Syliva became more and more malnourished until she reached this state. She is actually 2 years old in this picture, but she's never walked because of her health.
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I was told about Sylvia by some people in the village so went to see for myself. I pretended like I knew nothing when I entered Chrstine's home, and had to ask her if she had a child that was sick inside the house. Christine is very humble, and she would never want to trouble anybody with her own troubles. She is a hard worker, extremely hard worker, and she is very dear to the project of Tumaini.
She brought Sylvia out and I really could not believe my eyes. I held myself together but this was really hard. I held her and it was like there was nothing in my arms. Normally a child this young would cry to be held by a white person for the first time out of fear, but Sylvia didn't have the strength to cry.
Sylvia's got a sponsor since all of this and is improving. By the end of October I'll have visited her again to do a progress report and will post some newer, healthier pictures. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she's in better health.
