Last week we successfully graduated 8 children out of our nutrition programme after just 3 months. All 8 of these children had gained such a great amount of weight and grown in height that they are now well within the healthy weight range on the BMI index.

Through our nutrition programme, not only have we been able to support these vulnerable children to gain weight and become healthy, but we have also provided their families and caregivers with nutritional support and education needed to ensure that can help their children to have a well balanced diet. The weekly food packages have also allowed families to make small savings in their weekly outgoings to support several of them in investing into their small businesses or paying for school fees. 

Thanks to the support of 34 donors who funded our CARINGCROWD CrowdFunding programe at the end of last year. Please stay posted for individual stories on each of these children. 

For more information about our nutrition programme and how you can get involved in us helping even more malnourished, vulnerable children to get healthy and get the education they need check out our programme page: Nutrition programme. 

As Tiny Tim & Friends grows in terms of patients, and the number activities we undertake to provide additional layers of support to those patients, we must also grow our support networks around the world. In Lusaka our community volunteers provide an essential part of our work in: helping us access individuals who would have been previously unknown to us; in allowing us to provide home based support to our patients across Lusaka; and in ensuring we can provide follow ups to everyone we test as HIV+ in order to ensure they are getting the right medical care and treatment they need to lead a healthy life.
 
We specifically work with HIV+ women in the community to help support our work and to provide HIV awareness and sensitisation. Their personal insight into living with HIV and their understanding of the issues the communities are facing enables us to have a much greater impact on the lives of the children, adolescents and pregnant women we work everyday to support.
 
One of our community volunteers is Margaret, 45, who after her diagnosis of being HIV+ decided she wanted to help others: 

 We want to share with you the story of just one of the children, whose life has been changed thanks to everyone who donated, through CARINGCROWD, to our Nutrition programme. Gladys is 6 years old and was brought to the Tiny Tim & Friends Clinic last year by her grandmother who was concerned with a persistent cough and considerable weight loss. Upon testing it was discovered she was HIV+. Gladys weighed just 12kgs (26lbs) putting her below the 1st percentile on the BMI index and classifying her as considerably underweight.

Thanks to the donations of 34 people through CARINGCROWD, we were able to enroll Gladys into our Nutrition programme. After only one month on the programme Gladys had gained 4kgs (almost 9lbs) and now is considered as a very healthy weight (at the 78th percentile on the BMI index).

We spoke to her Grandmother, Janet, about the impact the food support and nutritional advice is having for her family: 

"I have cared for Gladys for most of her life, as both of her parents have died. I own the family home but we live there with 15 other family members, selling vegetables to make money for food - usually making about 300 kwacha a week to feed the entire family (less than $30). 

I took Gladys to the TTF clinic as I was worried about her weight and after speaking to a woman in the community thought she may be HIV+. The food we have been getting from TTF helps so much. Before we could only feed Gladys at breakfast and in the evening and now she has 3 meals a day and snacks. The food is also helping with her taking her medication which was previously making her sick when she took it without eating. 

We have always tried to make her go to school but since she has become sicker she was missing more and more. Now she has gained weight and is managing on her medication better so is going back to school. 

The nutritional talks are also helping me in thinking about how to care for Gladys and prepare her meals - I have also been sharing this with my daughters and supporting my other grandchildren with this knowledge. 

I am too thankful to this support and I try and encourage the younger mothers in the programme to think about how they are using the food to help their children gain weight and become more healthy like Gladys."

Gladys is just one of the children we are seeing significant changes in due to the nutritional support and education their families are receiving. Without your donations this would not have been possible. So thank you and please watch out for more updates on the children you are helping.
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Sometimes you try your hardest to make a change in a child's life and are unsuccessful - but when you are successful that is definitely worth celebrating and sharing with the world! 

Many of you may remember Everson, a 13 year old child who was brought to us last year suffering with extreme malnutrition, neglect, and a variety of other health issues. His story stuck with the staff at Tiny Tim & Friends due to the fact that when he arrived at our Clinic many of our staff prepared themselves for the worst. We worked hard with our partners at Our Ladies Hospice, to provide him emergency palliative care,  found him a stable safe home at MacDonalds Farm, and have continued to treat him over the past 18 months to make sure he can lead a healthy, productive life. 
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Last week our social work team went to visit him at the Farm, to see how he was doing, and whilst he was showing them his vegetable garden he has been cultivating he said he would like to go back to Our Ladies Hospice, to thank the staff who helped him to recover over a year ago.

This week we went with Everson back to Our Ladies Hospice for an incredibly emotional and rewarding visit. None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the hard work and dedication of the staff at Our Ladies Hospice; the nurturing environment and safe home he has at MacDonalds Farm; and  all of the TTF donors and supporters who enabled us  to provide 4 months of intensive palliative care and medical treatment at the TTF Clinic. 

So we want to share with you in this celebration and as a picture can say a thousand words - here are just some from our day: 

Thank you to everyone who made this transformation possible - we are eternally grateful for your support and donations - without working in partnership none of this would have been possible!

​THANK YOU! 

Joyce is a new patient at TTF. She is HIV+, weighs only 12kgs (26lbs), has TB and is suffering from an all over body rash. Her symptoms and illnesses are not uncommon for a malnourished HIV+ child. Joyce currently sits below the 5th percentile on the BMI index and her health is a great concern – her CD4 count is 261 - just above a critical level.

Joyce's family situation is complex, her mother has alcohol abuse issues, and upon visiting her family home we discovered here grandmother, Betty, was seriously ill with TB - weighing only 28kgs (61lbs). Due to malnutrition Joyce is always sick and unable to go to school. Her mother never went to school and so is unable to secure regular employment, meaning food is scarce. They are stuck in a cycle of poverty. 

Joyce needs significant medical and social support in order to help her to get healthy and lead a positive life. Tiny Tim & Friends is currently supporting her in the following ways:

• Providing nutritional support to help her gain weight, improve her general health and boost her immune system
• Providing medical assistance through the TTF Clinic to cure her other ilnesses
• Giving her mother adherence counselling and disclosure support so she can help tell Joyce about her HIV status and help Joyce to understand the importance of taking her medication on time
• Helping her Grandmother (who weighed only 28kgs (61lbs) when we met her) to recover from TB and stop passing this to Joyce through emergency palliative care. 
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​Joyce’s story is sadly not that unusual for the children we see at the Tiny Tim & Friends Clinic. Joyce’s mother, Miriam,  got pregnant when she was still a teenager and unfortunately, as she was not on Anti-Retroviral treatment passed HIV onto her newborn daughter.  Miriam’s siblings have passed away leaving her and her younger brother to care for their children and their own Mother, who as mentioned is also incredibly sick.

​Ever since I was in my early 20’s I have wanted to work in development. But getting into development is tough, people tell you to get practical experience, to get a masters, to learn another language, get a skill or trade, to forget about a skill get policy knowledge, to volunteer, to network.
 
There is no clear path in which to take – I worked for several different charities in the UK and eventually back in 2012  I decided I wanted to get practical experience in a developing country so applied to volunteer through VSO, and after a fast 5 months was on my way to Zambia.