(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Ghana- Baby Melbourne is Sick [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-04-13  

Difficult news from Ghana.

Melbourne is a baby in Ghana. I wrote a story abut him here: www.dailykos.com/…

The family has not been doing well. The father is in prison and the mother, Agnes, is struggling. They also have two other children, an older daughter and an older son. Agnes has been trying to take care of them all on her own while the father is in prison and it hasn’t been going well.

When Melbourne was born the parents found that John, who works to help those in need in Ghana, had given his son an American name and they wanted an American name for their little boy too. So they asked for my suggestions.

Well, frankly I don’t know any names that are uniquely American. Except maybe Cody and I have personal reasons for not liking that one. But I gave them some names, including Melbourne which was my father’s name (and I admit not American at all. In fact my father is the only one I have ever known who was given that name.)

I was a bit embarrassed when they chose Melbourne. But they honestly seemed to like it and who was I to say no, since I was the one who had suggested it in the first place. So a little boy in Ghana is named the same name as my father, if not exactly named after him. I honestly think if my father were alive he would be honored.

At the time the father was driving a taxi and they were scraping along, if not well off. But then the father’s driver’s license expired and he couldn’t afford to renew it. He kept driving anyway as it was the only source of money to support his family, but he got caught and was sentenced to a year in prison. He still has four months to go before he is released.

This left Agnes and her children helpless and with no money. She was forced to move back to the Buduburam refugee camp and they have been struggling.

John only recently learned of all this and we have been trying to help as we can. But John himself had his own problems this month when he was wounded and there are so many others in need….

John took Agnes a small amount of money yesterday and found the little Melbourne is very ill. They think it is malaria. We are trying to get him to the hospital. Hopefully everything will be okay.

Very worried and sad.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/13/2163705/-Ghana-Baby-Melbourne-is-Sick

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/