"Egg?"
Two women carrying trays of sun-bleached food vie to catch my eye at the traffic light (called "robots" in South Africa FYI 🤖). I smile politely, shake my head and continue walking to Tintswalo hospital.
👆Single eggs going for R2.00 each 🍳 (approximately 10 cents in USD)
After about 50 meters, I am standing at the next robot and hear the question again, now updated with a tone of desperation.
"Egg?"
One of the sellers has impressively kept pace with me despite the precarious bucket of onions balancing on her head.
"Special price?"
She adds.
I look back to see her competitor standing askew in the dust. Even from this distance I can see she has cerebral palsy. Her left arm is contorted into the characteristic swan neck across her chest.
A rough calculation of what the seller in front of me would earn in the unlikely event of 100% uptake (about 20 eggs and 10 dehydrated onions) comes out at approximately R60.00 or around USD3.25.
And this is on a very (very) good day...which is probably only possible with 4 fully functional limbs.
In this community, the vast majority of cerebral palsy is preventable. Often a consequence of a perinatal stroke, where the foetus is starved of oxygen during a complicated birth, leading to a lifetime of disability and lost potential.
Now...thanks entirely to your donations, we have a dedicated "Gynae ward" in our emergency department that has drastically improved the management of obstetric emergencies.
👆 Check out our signature shades of grey 😎
--New flooring, walls, hospital grade skirting boards...
--A new waterproofed mattress (made by the famous Heidi Simply Sewing, which replaces the previous atrocity, see HERE 🤢)
--And most importantly, a (necessarily) fancy medical light 💡
Thank-you to our donors ❤️
You know who you are.
Please enjoy this whatsapp we received from a doctor working in the emergency room just last week:
A calm, private organised working environment with all the necessary equipment at hand is critical in an emergency; it creates dignity for the patients and contributes to better health outcomes.
Thank-you
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