Dear Friends:

We spoke last of Nancy's work in the village and want to share some more of that as well as our first excursion "en brousse" or "in the bush."

There are seven traditional midwives in the village. A traditional midwife has no education from a training program. She has instruction from another midwife and/or what she has learned through life. In most cases, midwives give their work freely, although they may receive some payment. They have big hearts and are tremendously desirous of learning how to help ladies and their newborn children. Nancy is holding classes for these ladies as well as some others who are interested in learning about prenatal care, the delivery of babies, and how to select those ladies at high risk of complications for referral to the hospital. This later element is very important as the death rate from pregnancy-related complications is so high that 1 in every 10 to 15 women in sub-Saharan Africa will die of one of these causes. This is not to say that 1 in every 10 to 15 pregnancies results in a death, but, considering that the average woman here has 10 pregnancies and the chance is 1 in 100 that she will die with any pregnancy, the math ends up with this being one of the most common reasons for death in women here. The death rate of newborns is also high, as is that of children under 5. One in 4 children don’t survive until their fifth birthday. They die from things that are largely preventable or curable at little cost.

We have had an introduction into life in the bush, with two days of driving a Toyota Range Rover, African version, into the country. At the beginning of our first excursion, our guide told us that he had been a driver for the institution, and Mike offered him the keys. He refused, saying that Mike needed to learn to drive in the bush. It is an experience unlike any driving school you have ever attended. You don't go into the bush without a shovel and a lot of courage. What starts as an eroded dirt road impassable in spots (hence the shovel) turns into foot paths a few feet wide with weeds on either side higher than the car, which you simply plow through. These cars have a super low gear that locks the differential. You need this to get up and down some pretty rugged terrain to get to the remote villages and their health centers. These centers are staffed by nurses that have a supply of essential medicines. They are essentially private clinics where their clients pay a fee for service. Total obstetrical prenatal care usually costs about 60 cents, as does a treatment for malaria or other cause of fever. People with severe illnesses needing transfer to the hospital are put on the back of a bicycle and walked in. The furthest center we visited was about 40 miles away. That is quite a hike over rugged trails. There is no means of communication and this is truly a desperate struggle for survival.

What can we do to help? These examples and some others we have given are the result of extreme poverty. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. I wonder if He meant to remind us as He did with so many references to our responsibility toward the poor that as long as there is a disproportionate distribution of the riches of the world there will always be poverty. What we can do, among other things, is to be a voice to our nation to treat and trade fairly with the poor nations of the world. It is only to the extent that their commerce can succeed that they can bring themselves out of poverty. We can help them conquer some of the diseases that hinder their ability to work and live, help them to develop sources of drinkable water, assist in the development of systems of education, be with them and pray with them as they seek to find their solutions. Let us seek to be a part of the light that guides them rather than to place them in our immense and powerful shadow.

God's peace be with you and your families!

Mike and Nancy Haninger

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 29