Dr Tuul asked if I would like to go with her to see the Ulaanbaatar Children's Sanitarium. My staff know how I love to get out of the office and see what is happening in their projects. What was I going to experience this time?

We rolled up in a hired car outside the flat roofed building so badly in need of a coat of paint on the outside, but inside, so clean and neat. It reminded me of the Soviet type institutions that I have visited many times before. We were welcomed at the door and, as I expected, we were soon kitted out with white gowns and shoe mittens and our guided tour began.

Off to the right it sounded like 40 hungry children were exercising their lungs. We walked into the room on the left where 37 toddlers played on the floor on a big, clean 9'x10' carpet. Bright expectant faces looked up at us with little runny noses and red cheeks. One or two were crying. The staff seemed a little reserved and flustered as this tall foreigner walked in. I bent down and picked up a fellow letting everyone know that he needed love, and that he needed it NOW. He clung to me and was soon as happy as a lark. I bent down to help a second one with a shoe. Soon Dr Tuul had her arms full of kids. Mitsu, our project coordinator, a father to be, was handed a baby too. He awkwardly held it for a while, and then opted to hold the camera instead.

The children were the poorest of the poor. Little misshapen legs told of malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. These 37 ADRA babies had been identified in our Community Health Project run in the ger communities of the poorest districts in Ulaanbaatar. They were given a chance to be brought to this Sanitarium 5 days a week for 9 hours per day. Daily each child is given a bath and leg massages. Best of all they are given 3 nutritious meals with fortified juice and 6 UNICEF issued biscuits per day containing the necessary vitamins for normal growth. In a warm environment they jostled with each other for the few toys available and the loving attention of the caretakers that were spread so thinly.

These ADRA sponsored children are part of a project funded by the Weigels, Harvest Ingathering and the Australian Government. In two months this project, of which this was a small part, will come to an end. These children will still need several more months of balanced meals to stimulate normal growth. We will do what we can to find funding to continue nutritious feeding during this very important phase of growth in these kids lives.

I sensed that a sudden peace and quiet reigned in that room to the right. I was driven by curiosity to look in. What an amazing scene met me! It bought back childhood memories from the storybook of the "Old Lady Who Lived In The Shoe" and "she had so many children she didn't know what to do"! Forty little toddlers sat around a low table all trying to feed themselves from chipped bowls with massive desert spoons. Fried rice and mutton were on the menu. The children came from homes so poor that a single meal per day was the norm. We were given a sample of the lovely food prepared for these children. One could taste the added vitamins in the fortified drink. I even tried one of the fortified biscuits. It was good. We then donated 40 sets of plates, bowls and two handled enamel mugs to the institution to replace the old chipped bowls. I shall have to go back with some teaspoons to replace those gigantic spoons, too.

I rode away so happy to be a part of ADRA. What would the results have been if we had turned our backs on these children? Jesus once said, "Let the little ones to come to Me, and forbid them not".

Llewellyn Juby