Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Inside the clinic it's 90 F. Wrapped in a patterned shawl, a baby lies on its back on a spring scale, his arms and legs flailing in the air. His mother watches anxiously. She has brought her child to be weighed, to see how much weight he has lost in the past few days. Her little boy has chronic diarrhea. And diarrhea, Richard Juma, the medical orderly, explains as he adjusts the child's position on the scale, is the number-one killer of children in the Third World. If Ruth Mogisani's child loses any more fluids, his chances of survival are slim.