A Girl Named Lovely by Catherine Porter

Author:Catherine Porter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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I did visit the local Baptist mission hospital a few days later, but it was on my own. There was an ancient X-ray machine, two operating rooms, a laboratory, and a small pediatric ward. Like the dental clinic, the waiting rooms were all lined with long wooden church pews, so varnished that they gleamed, adding a dignity and saintly calm to the place.

Some of the programs and staff here were paid by the government, and the costs in the general ward were very low. But its surgeons and specialists worked as independent contractors and had to be paid in full by patients, and that was expensive.

The administrator led me to the accounting office, where I filled out some rudimentary paperwork for Lovely’s family, slowly printing out the names of each member on a page to ensure that all of them would be able to get free service here. Then I counted out US$1,000. I figured, given that a family visit we’d made here together in June had cost US$26, this might cover a few years of basic health care and medication. If they had an emergency, they would run through it much quicker—but that was the point. I wanted to prevent any further pointless deaths in the family if I could.

The rest of the money I’d spent on the family, to my mind, had fallen into a long-term development plan. Even though Rosemene’s business had not taken off as I had hoped, the idea behind giving her monthly grants was still to boost her back to being self-sufficient like she was before the earthquake. Paying for two years of Lovely’s, Sophonie’s, and Jenanine’s educations similarly seemed like an investment toward their family’s eventual escape from poverty.

In contrast, this medical payment was short-term aid, plain and simple. There was nothing sustainable about it. Once the family ran through the account, they’d likely go back to paying out of pocket when they could and going without health care the rest of the time—unless the government came through with its health care plan to provide free medical service to the population, starting with young children and pregnant women. Even that wonderful improvement would be partial.

But how could I not create some health insurance for them? I believed health care was a human right. Having grown up in Canada, I had never had to pay for a planned visit to my family doctor or a rushed one to the hospital. It all came out of our collective taxes. It seemed criminal to force people away from treatment because they were poor, particularly during a cholera outbreak.

Besides, I saw the difference a few visits to the dentist had made for Lovely. What was the point of sending a little girl to school if she was feverous and moaning with pain? How would she learn?

I now knew the stakes were much larger than a toothache. To haul herself and her family out of poverty, Lovely had to do more than learn. She had to stay alive.

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