Sylvia was born via an emergency C-section which meant that all the money her mother, June, had saved for her ‘maternity leave’ was spent on the hospital bill. Sylvia had a five year old brother and a 10 year old sister.
In her desperation, June made the unwise decision to take some illegal medicine to stop her breast milk. She had made a plan to keep her other children home from school to look after Sylvia and bottle feed her whilst she went out to look for work cleaning people’s houses. It was a disaster. She could not afford formula, her 10 year old was unable to prepare a bottle and within two months the baby was seriously sick. At this point the family was referred to Tushinde.
Despite always being pro-breastfeeding, our social worker’s only choice here was to purchase formula and bottles. Tushinde supported June to stay at home for three months, whilst getting the children back into school.
Fortunately Sylvia recovered quickly. By six months she was a healthy weight and a bright and alert baby. June was able to leave Sylvia in the day care whilst she looked for work to support her family.
Now, three years later, she has graduated from the programme and runs a small business selling chapatis.
“Thanks to Tushinde they salvaged my shame from the community by enrolling my children in school as well as providing formula milk for my baby. If it was not for Tushinde who knows where we would be now.”