Egg?

"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