Vivian, her husband Dr Steve Scott and their two children volunteered at the Ile-Ife Hospital in Nigeria in 2000.

donated blood via the red cross, but I’ve never had a chance to meet the recipient of my gift. This time I went to the maternity ward and met the fragile expectant mother who needed a boost because of severe anemia. I smiled and promised her that my blood was red, just like hers, and would not give her blue eyes or freckles.

The other life that I saved came as a resulf of my commitment to making food for the babies in the hospital. Twice a day for the last six weeks, I have made a big pot of high-protein porridge from locally available ingredients and carried it over to the children’s ward. When Steve discharged one happy little tyke he said, “That baby is one of yours. He never would have made it without you. Now his momma is a believer in protein and she plans to go back to her village and advertise.”

I asked Steve if he had ever seen a case of Kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) in the States. He answered, “Only once, and that was a neglected child of alcoholic parents.”

Here we see it every week. We have started giving educational talks to the patients, and even if Steve gets invited to speak at a church, he focuses on nutrition and other health issues.

All the locals have farms. I don’t mean the small gardens we play with in America. These are large enough to grow the corn a family will need for the coming year. The hoeing is done with a hand held tool that they swing between their legs. These farmers know that when the leaves of their corn turn yellow, the corn needs fertilizer.

We point out the children with yellowing hair, puffy limbs, and distended bellies and explain, “This is like the yellow leaves on your corn. The children need protein just like corn needs fertilizer.”

Ironically enough, soy beans are one of the best forms of protein and nearly every farmer grows some. But they are considered a cash crop and are sold to factories in the south. Meanwhile, the very families that grow the beans may include children dying of malnutrition.

Sometimes to “make a difference” in the world around us we just have to look at what needs to be done and do it.

My hard working husband has been scrubbing walls at the hospital. The dry season dust blows thick, and the walls get desperately dirty. The national workers have been amazed and rather chagrined to see the big American doctor with his hands in a bucket of soapy water, but they’ve also been inspired to start some cleaning projects of their own.

Some of you have wished you could serve with us in Africa (others think we’re out of our minds), but I would like to leave you with a challenge. Look around you. What could you be doing that would make a difference?

Maybe you have a pile of books that could be donated to the library, maybe you could offer an evening of babysitting to the parents of toddlers, maybe you know someone who needs a phone call. Donated blood saves lives in America, too. There are needs all around you right where you are.

By: Vivian Scott