Unrest forced Chalota’s family to start over.
Chalota, her husband Elisha, and their three young children fled war-torn Congo, arriving in Uganda as refugees with little or nothing to their names.
Though she was able to find work as a tailor, Chalota and her family often struggled to make ends meet.
A complicated pregnancy put three babies at risk.
When Chalota discovered she was pregnant, she found out she was carrying twins. She went into labor early and came to a Medical Teams health center, where she delivered not two, but three pre-term babies by C-section, with the smallest weighing just over two pounds.
Unable to breathe on their own, the girls were placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where they remained for three weeks under oxygen, heat, and observation.
Chalota’s own health was soon at risk.
While her babies began their roads to recovery, Chalota suffered complications herself. Shortly after giving birth, she began bleeding heavily. She received treatment for the bleeding and recovered.
Elisha wondered how their family would make it.
Elisha felt overwhelmed. At one point, he considered leaving his family. “I thought about running. I had nothing, and now there were six children,” he says. “But then I remembered God doesn’t make mistakes. Maybe He gave us these babies for a reason.”
Together, the family began to heal.
Eventually, their babies recovered and went home with Chalota, Elisha, and their older siblings, where they remained healthy and grew bigger and stronger.
“This service saved our lives,” Chalota shares. “If it stops, I know many mothers and babies who won’t survive.”
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