Personal burden of a health worker

Sinkhani on final day of training (Mary is third from R on front row)

I shared a bit of this story earlier along with a picture of the gentleman who said he would try to help us.  While we were in Malawi, Mary, one of our Sinkhani health workers asked to talk to me alone and shared her very sobering story.  She has a 7-year-old that was born with both male and female genitalia which has resulted, among other things, in urinary incontinence.  Up until now, the father has refused to give permission for the mother to seek medical help for the child.  Just by chance, a few nights later we met two gentlemen at the guesthouse in Lilongwe where we stayed.  They were watching the World Cup which made it easy to strike up a conversation!  It turned out they were both very influential men:  one the president of the Malawi Teacher's Union and the other a physician.  AND they run Living in Hope, a not-for-profit organization for handicapped children!  We told them our story and they immediately volunteered to help.  They were even optimistic that being Malawians they could successfully talk the husband into having the child seen and hopefully transferred to South Africa for surgery.  We are so very hopeful that the child can be helped.  We'll keep you updated when we learn more.