Neo

A little boy was found abandoned at the hospital when I first arrived. He was listless, totally undernourished and stunted (the docs estimated that he was 10 months old even though he looks about 4 months old), and HIV positive. His arms and legs were no bigger than my index finger. The staff decided to name him Neo. He is currently in the pediatrics ward and a bunch of us take turns carrying him around, feeding him, and just trying to stimulate him. It's amazing to see the physical and developmental changes just over the past few weeks. He looks like a totally different infant but I have to wonder if the early neglect and malnutiriton has severely impacted his cognitive development. I also wonder if he will have access to ARV drugs and how long he will live before some opportunistic infection kills him . The saddest part part of this story is that there are a lot of children like Neo in Lesotho, most of whom are AIDS orphans. I have seen them hanging around the villages and clinics, out herding cattle in the valleys, and when they come begging for food at my door. It's really hard to witness a whole generation of children being left alone to fend for themselves.