Irene Musukwa, 28, of Misuku, Malawi, a small country known as the Warm Heart of Africa, holds daughter, Grace Swila. Women like Irene sometimes wake as early as three in the morning to begin walking to the Under 5 (year-olds) clinic that is every Monday at the Misuku Health Center.
In several African countries children are most at risk before they even reach five years of age due to malnutrition, diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, and malaria. At the clinic, the women wrap their young children in chitenjes, a two meter piece of fabric that is used to wrap their heads, cover their skirts or carry their babies on their backs. Once the child is hammock-like in the chitenje a Health Surveillance Assistant hangs the child from a scale, tracking the child’s development.
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