In July we told the story of Benjamin, a young man in Accra, Ghana who saved a
person from drowning on the ocean beaches there. Now Benjamin's wife, Belinda, is
pregnant and just about to give birth. They are very poor and Belinda has had no
prenatal care at all. They came to John asking for help.
We managed to get Belinda in to get checked by a doctor and he said that she was
very close to delivery, probably by the 28th of this month. He suggested that she
go to stay with her mother in a village outside of Accra. This she and Benjamin
simply did not have the money to do.
Unfortunately this is approaching the time of the month when our funds are very
limited. We have to be very careful what we agree to do and who we agree to help
for fear that we will be caught without funds if any sudden emergency arises and
someone comes to us asking for help in a serious, life-threatening situation. This
time of month we usually are unable to help people who are about to be evicted for
non-payment of rent or who need food. We are forced to ask people to try to hold on
for a week or so until we once again have the resources to be able to help them. It
is a very difficult time.
But in this case we had little choice. The baby will not wait until we have more
money. When it is ready to be born it will be born. And childbirth is inherently
dangerous. Women in labor need all of the support possible to make certain that
both they and their baby survive.
So we managed to scrape together enough money for Belinda to get to her mother and,
hopefully, to pay for the medical expenses there when she goes into labor. It is
very late in her pregnancy and there is some risk of her travelling even a short
distance, not to mention the risks of actual childbirth itself. But we have done
what we can and now we are waiting anxiously to find what the outcome will be.
Hopefully it will be good news.
We wish Benjamin, Belinda and the baby all the best.
