Malaria, malaria and malaria!!!!

           PAUL

The last two days have been very busy, I think we have been at least 10 times to the doctor in the clinic next door and with two children to the paediatrician. Paul, the baby where I wrote about before, was suddenly very sick, we had to put him on our oxygen machine. You have then a lot of worries about the little man!The wounds in his mouth are still not gone. Today he was a little better and we could take him of the oxygen.

Then we had two other babies who were not doing well, both had malaria. One had to go on an IV line and one we had to put a NG tube in, so we could feed her properly. Five other children we took also for malaria test, are ok, we just have to keep an eye on them.

One other baby, Caroline, is also quite sick. Her mother died at the delivery at the beginning of this month. Now she got high fever, we also went twice for malaria test but today we felt the fontanel swollen. We went to the paediatrician and now we have to treat Caroline for meningitis with IV antibiotica. So we are almost a little hospital. With all those babies you have to be so alert, life is for sure not boring in Amecet! If there is any nurse among you who wants to have some challenges in her or his life, please consider to come over and help us for some months!

For check up in the hospital

At the moment we have around 16 children in our houses who are on ART, Anti Retroviral Treatment, that are medicines which slow down the growth of the HIV virus in the blood, so the white bloodcells (CD4) are getting stronger and more. We have our children going to two different clinics. We get the medicines for free, that is such a blessing, they gave LIFE back to our children! Every third month we have to take the children to see the doctor, the other two months we just go and get the medicines.

Today we had to go to the doctor in the main hospital with 9 of our children. With the help of the Figurant (from Holland) we were able to help the hospital with building a special clinic for the HIV + children. The building is a very busy place, I heard that they are planning to expand the two clinic days to 5 clinic days. They have around 1000 HIV+ patients! The waiting room is very nice decorated by 3 visiting Dutch teachers and in the middle of the waiting room stands a playtable with beets! Probably the only one in Uganda!!!

We were waiting for 4 hours, people are so patient, men are coming around selling biscuits, another one bananas and again another one plastic bags with a little bit of juice in it. Then we can see the doctor, we always go to the peadiatrician, Dr. Florence, who is very gentle and kind for the children, we have a very good relationship with her, I can always call her when I have a serieus sick child in Amecet. She has been coming to our house to see children who were on oxygen. She took enough time for each child, there were no real serieus complains. After that we went to another place for a DNA HIV test for Paul. You can see him in his little chair on the picture. I wrote about him earlier this week. We need to know for sure if Paul is HIV+ or not. There is a special test for children below 18 months, we know the results in 2 weeks!
It was almost 1.30 pm when we came back in Amecet, hungry and thirsty, the water we took was long finished, and I didn't trust the juice in the plastic bags, so now the posho and beans were tasting great!

Born in Captivity

Every monday morning, one of our staffmembers, Esther, goes with one or two other people to the local Prison in Soroti. Maybe one year ago we were visiting one mother, who was put in jail because of trying to burry her baby alive. It sounds terrible and it is terrible, but after talking with the lady we could understand a little bit why someone does a terrible thing like this. We always took her baby with us when we went to see her and you saw her eyes lightening up, when she saw her baby. She really loves her child and feels very sorry for what she did. She is still in jail, her baby is now together with her parents, waiting for her release.

By that time we talked with the prison officer and he told us that there are often mothers in jail with small children, that there is not much what they can offer these little ones.

As Amecet leaders we talked this over and we decided to help those little children. From that time, Esther goes every week to visit those mothers with small children in jail. We bring them porridge flour, sugar and soap. Sometimes some clothes, sometimes we help with medicines. We provided some potts, to cook the porridge.

                                                                                                                           

Last week we got a telephone call from the prison warden. One of the pregnant ladies was about to deliver, if we please could help. Josephine and Els drove fast to town, to buy the nessesary things they need to bring to the hospital for delivery. And after that we drove to the prison to pick the lady and bring her to the hospital. When we came there, we heard that we were too late. The baby was already born! We went to see them, in one of the rooms, in the middle of bunkbeds the little boy was born. Surrounded by a group of female warden, a medical person was busy with the lady and we saw the little baby. Born in the prison, how sad.  On the picture you can see the baby, laying in the towel we brought,  on the prison blanket. We pray that he will receive all the love and care he needs. That he will not have to stay too long in prison and that it won't effect his personality.

120 gram in 5 days!!!!!!

This is Patrick, he is the second baby of triplets. When he was born, his weight was 900 gram! His brother and sister weighed much more. We think he must have been squeezed in between his brother and sister.

But Patrick is a survivor, instead of being put in an incubator, his mother took the 3 babies to their hut in the village. And Patrick survived!! When the babies were 7 weeks old, the mother came to Amecet asking for help. She didn't have enough breastfeeding for the three and she was too busy with the three of them + the 6 other children at home. When they came, Patrick was 7 weeks old and his weight was 1560 gram.

Today, it is Sunday, and that is in Amecet: Weighing day. All the children are being weighed and recorded on the list. Patrick has gained 120 gram in lees then 5 days! We are happy. He is our smallest baby, but he has a loud voice!! He lets us know when he wants to drink!
When he is 2 kgs, we will celebrate it in Amecet with a soda at supper time!! (I'll let you know!)

About cows and bulls....

Two weeks ago we finished giving out bulls, cows, ploughs and orange trees to several families in the village. When HIV+ children go back to their relatives, often they go to their grandmothers, mostly their parents have died of AIDS. We visit the children regularly and we try to encourage and help them a bit. We received a gift from EO Metterdaad , Stichting de Figurant  (both from Holland) gave some as well and we were able to bring 27 ploughs, 21 bulls, 5 cows and 170 orange trees to 34 families in the villages. They were all families who are caring for HIV+ children. It was so good to see the joy and the thankfullness . Some of the grandmothers started to dance!! On the pictures you can see Alex' grandmother with the orange trees and Simon, who gives the bull to the aunti of Evelyn. In the picture below, you see how the grandmother of Emmanuel tries out the plough, Emmanuel has the orange trees in his hands. It has been a big blessing for the whole family! And it will help the family to provide for themselves.

A new baby came at our door.......

Today we got a new boy in Amecet! His name is Paul and he is 8 months old. I couldn't believe that, he just looks like a new born baby, his weight is only 2,6 kg. A child of 8 months is around 7,5 kg. So is very malnourished. He had fever as well. Both of his parents died of AIDS, his mother died just 2 weeks ago. Leaving 8 children behind. Two of them are married and the oldest sister (22 years) took 6 of her siblings in her home. Her husband agreed, but his family is not happy with the situation. In Uganda the wife goes to the family of the husband, they pay a brideprice for her in cows. We took Paul into our home, took him to the doctor and we are going to test him for HIV/AIDS as well. He has sores in his mouth, but we pray he is HIV-, that will be so good!!!

Welcome in Baby world.........

Today we struggled with Paul, the new baby from yesterday. He didn't drink, we tried everything, the bottle, the cup with a tube, cup without tube, with a syringe, at last we decided to give him a NG tube and we feed him trough the tube which goes via his nose, direct to his stomach. Now we can feed him even when he is asleep! But he also needed IV medicines, so he has a canule in his hand. He is not very happy, he has fever and he has still diarrhea and he vomits easily. We appreciate your prayers for Paul!

We have now 12 babies in Amecet! Paul is the oldest baby, but weight wise, the biggest baby weighs just 4,3 kg. You can imagine how many bottles we have to give in a day, and also how many diapers are hanging at our clothes line every day! We got a big playpin (box in Dutch), which we put on the veranda, we lay the babies in there, so they are safe from our crawling children!

Ikea Babies

7 beautiful babies in new IKEA diapers, laying on new IKEA towels in the shade of an Ugandan tree!