“This is a really sad picture, but a really effective one, in that it demonstrates the devastating impact of malaria. We would have at least two children die at our hospital every day on average, sometimes even more. And it would happen so unexpectedly. And this picture shows how, when a child would die, he or she would usually be wrapped up in a lappa, the same cloth that held them against their mothers’ backs when they were well.”
“A lot of these families came from small villages and they didn’t have a large support network, and, obviously, couldn’t afford many things. So, the majority of the children, after they died, we would actually give the caretakers cardboard boxes—the same cardboard boxes our medical supplies came in. And that’s what they were buried in.”
13
“Here, an MSF nurse is resuscitating a child who had stopped breathing. I’m standing next to her, there is another child lying next to that one and two more behind us, all in critical condition. For me, a lot of the reflection happened after the mission. It just seemed that so many things were going on, you just had to stay strong and keep doing what you were doing. Now, when I see these pictures and I think about it, I just can’t believe the stuff that I saw and I can’t believe the environment I was working in. We were resuscitating children every day and just trying to keep them alive.”
Field Journal: Bo, Sierra Leone