Ten + one = eleven children on our doorstep (Part 2)...



Our blog of 19th of February has a part 2!!!

On Wednesday we got the 10 Sudanese children suddenly in our home. After feeding and showering they were doing much better and a night of sleeping in a bed did the rest!! We were told that they were working on a solution and on Friday afternoon, some big cars entered Amecet compound. The Minister of State for relief and disaster, Musa Ecweru, came from Kampala to  see how the situation with the children was. In a short time our compound was full with people, high government officials from Soroti came, the press came and there were at least 20 people around.

On this picture the Minister (second of the left) sits in Amun home on the sofa in our Amun home. Next to him the LC5 of Soroti, he is talking to the children to see what is the real story.

 Outside the press is trying to get the story by interviewing several important people who all know something more about the whole case. There were people from three newspapers and the Ugandan National TV. After they left, it was quiet again and the children came to Amecet to practise riding our bicycles again and swing and jump on our trampoline.

But it was not over yet... On Tuesday there was a article in the newspaper, it was shown on the national TV and Wednesday afternoon again a big car came into our compound... With a police officer and an official from the office of the Prime Minister. He talked first with us and then with the children.

 Here we are, at our veranda, discussing what would happen with the children, they were busy playing and had not much interest in the visitors. But they came to tell us that they would come and pick the children the next morning and bring them to a camp in Arua. This is more North, towards the Sudanese border. From there it would be easier to bring them back to their homes. There was also a grandmother with the group and many names of parents and villages, so it would not be too difficult. The area where they were from, was not at war. When the visitors left, we shared with the children, they were not happy, they liked it with us, but this is not a good situation for long, so it would be good that they will be united with their relatives.

 On Thursday morning, the children were waiting on the veranda, not really happy, but it had to happen. The evening before we had soda's at the meal and after the meal they had a wonderful time of singing together. There was dancing and praising God, we also prayed for them. We wanted them to know that God is with them, wherever they would go.

 When the government officials arrived, they gave us the papers, allowing us to hand over the 11 children to them. (there were now 11, one boy had been in the police cells, but had joined the group again). One by one they were called and checked if it was the right child. The Probation office Soroti and the Soroti Police was involved in the process.

 Picture before department; At the left is Simon standing who was active, presenting Amecet, in the handing over.

Then stepping into the car, which was send from the office of the Prime Minister of Uganda. It was not a happy group leaving, but it was the best for them at this moment. We pray that they will be brought back to their family soon and go to school in their country. Thank God there is no war in their area, but South Sudan is not safe, they need our prayers......

Baby Esther's fight is over..

I have been writing about baby Esther, asking your prayers and now I have to write that yesterday at 6 pm Esther's fight was over.
We have seen it coming, she was getting worse, her breathing was very difficult and her heart rate went up very high. It was so difficult to see this little baby labour, struggling to get her breath. We had put her on oxygen, but even that didn't seem to help her much.

We are very sad, we had so much hope, even Esther was weak and sick, we know that she is with Jesus now. And we are leaving this morning (Sunday morning) to bring her back to her relatives in the village. Esther, you were a fighter, now you may rest and enjoy Life!

A playground in Soroti prisons.

We had a big group of visitors today. A delegation of a donor organisation Metterdaad from Holland came by. We have been receiving help from this organisation for the batteries for our Solar system. Right now they are helping us with buying a monitor machine for Soroti hospital. We first had some time in Amecet and then we went to the Hospital. We saw the doctor who will work with the monitor in the future and after that we went to the Soroti Prisons. With donor gifts from Holland we were able to build a small playground for the children from the female prisoners. And today we had the official handover from the playground to the Prisons.

 First we had some speeches from the Prisons officials, we also said something and one of the prison ladies had a small speech. After that we went outside and we opened the playground with some of the small children on the merry-go-round, the slide and the swing. We had bought some crates of soda, so the party was complete!! (in Uganda no party without a soda!!!) 

 At the end, the prisoners sang for us and the group of Metterdaad sang a song (in Dutch) to them.

It was a busy day, with all those visitors and we also had the 10 children playing around in Amecet. They discovered some bicycles and they were all teaching each other to use the bicycle. They were all over the place, on the trampoline, on the swings, in the sandbox. It was so good to see them happy and relaxed. In the meantime the police is working on the case. Max is also doing well, but we do have some worries about the little baby Esther. She keeps having fevers, the doctor has been coming to Amecet to see her. She is put on IV medication.

So we do not getting bored.... Tomorrow a new day again!

Ten children on our doorstep...

This afternoon Simon got a phone call from the police, if we could help????? They had a group children from South Sudan, who were stranded in Soroti...

A NGO had brought the group of children from Sudan to Soroti for education, they were put in a boarding school and after that the NGo disappearred. And never came back... The school kept them at first, but didn't want to feed them anymore, because there was no money left. They were brought to the police. The last four nights they slept outside under a big truck and they didn't have much food for the last two days. After a small meeting with our leaders, Simon went to the police to get them. It took some time, all the papers had to be filled, the police has already contact with the Sudanese Embassey to bring the children back to South Sudan. But the children needed a safe place to stay and some food in their tummy's.

 This is just after their arrival, they are a bit scared, very quiet and unsure from where they are and what will happen to them. They are small, the ages are between 4 and 15.

 First a good meal, Elias had been gone very fast to town, to buy some more rice and chicken, that was on our menu for today, the children enjoyed the meal very much. In the mean time, we got sheets, towels, soap, toothpaste and smearing oil together, we also looked for some clothes which would fit them.

The meal has helped the children to relax and when we started to sing after our meal, they happily joined us and we had a great time singing and praising God.

We organised rooms in our other house, Amun. Also two staff members are going to sleep there for the time that the children will be with us. In Amun home are already some staff sleeping, but we asigned some specific staff to the children. Hopefully they will organise their trip back to their family's fast. In the meantime they are safe!!

Diaper fashion and Max...

This week we received a box with all kind of "baby things" by mail. And there were really nice colored diapers in! So we maker a fashion show.... Are they not cute? ( I mean the diapers AND the baby's!)

Yesterday Elias, Janneke and me went to the village to visit Max. Last week they came to Amecet and we saw that Max was struggling, he was almost too weak to walk. He is HIV+ and on ARV medicines, but still very weak. We promised to visit the family in the village, to see and talk over with them how we could help Max. On this picture we are talking with the family who takes care of Max at the moment.

We took Max to Amecet, he was happy to come with us, because last week when they visited Amecet, he saw some cars to play with. Max is very weak and we took him this morning to the HIV clinic, half way he fell asleep!! He is 11 years old, both his parents died and also his grandmother who cared for him after the death of his mother, died of Aids. The doctor changed his ARV medicines into stronger medicines and he also needs to get now IV medication because of a bad lung infection. I feel for him and it is so good to see him smile. He will need a lot of care and love, but where a smile is........there is hope!!

After 48 homevisits.....

On 31 st of December the father of Mubarac came to Amecet for help for his son. You can read it all the the blog of January 14th. Mubarac had a very bad and a very big wound on his foot. Janneke, our nurse decided to come every day to clean the wound and to dress it. For a while we were even scared that he might loos his foot, it was that bad!!

Janneke went every day, for 48 days to their home to clean the wound. He was enrolled in an organization where they help handicapped people, because he needs a wheel chair. 

He got the wheel chair about 2 weeks ago and he is very proud of it! The wound is clean and nice and from tomorrow onwards the father will dress the wound. We give the bandages and he is doing the work. Janneke will keep checking on them, but I think we might have helped to save his foot.

Baby Esther is a fighter..

Baby Esther is a fighter!!! She looks at you with those beautiful black eyes on a way of:" I keep an eye on you, I want to know what is going on!"  She had a good night, we fed her via the NG tube every two hours and every 3rd feeding we use the bottle. She has problems to control her body temperature, so we play with blanket on, and off.

We took her and the results of yesterday tests to the pediatrician. She had a good look at her and was quite positive. She gets some medication and we have to do the feeding and keeping her warm. There is a big chance that the small hole in her heart will close when she gets stronger and bigger. Thank you for your reactions via FB, it is very encouraging!

I also let Sabine meet her little sister! Sabine was almost as malnourished as Esther, Sabine has also a small hole in her heart. And look at her now!! Sabine is 6 weeks older than Esther (who is now 6 weeks old). We are not there yet, Esther has still a way to go, but we do have hope that she will pick up. Thank you for your prayers, please continue............

Baby Esther comes in Amecet.

Every week we go to Soroti hospital to visit the feeding centre. Last week Janneke, our nurse, saw there a very small little girl. The story was that she was born as a very healthy girl, weighing 3,4 kg. Now, 6 weeks later, she is so malnourished. The mother was there,  there are also 5 other children at home, in the village. We talked with the nurses and offered our help for the baby. Today, I got a phone call from the hospital, if we could come and pick the baby. I went together with Esther, one of our Ugandan staff. We talked with the nurses and heard that the doctor had no objections, then we went to the family. We met the mother several times before, she had communicated to her husband and he was also there, together with his father, the grandfather of the baby.We explained everything to them and they wanted our help, so we filled the forms and they signed our forms.

Baby Esther is now 6 weeks old and her weight is 1,790 kg. and she was a normal baby when she was born her weight was 3,4 kg. Why did she lost so much weight? She is so weak, and so fragile, she is coughing, that is the only thing that we saw. She was already treated with antibiotics, but not much change. She is drinking, but it takes a lot of energy, so we put a NG tube in for some of the feedings. I took her to the doctor, we did blood tests and he send me to another clinic for a chest X-ray. 

I felt so sad, seeing this little baby, laying there on the table, for the X-ray. The doctor did a scan as well and he found a small hole in the heart and an infection in the lungs. Tomorrow we will go with all those reports to the pediatrician, to see what to do. Baby Esther was exhausted, after all those tests and she was sleeping peacefully in her little bed. Baby Esther is a very sick little girl, who is not out the danger zone. We had a time of prayer for her and we trust God that He will help us to care for this  little girl. We are happy that we have besides Janneke, two other nurses in Amecet, so we have a whole team to care for Baby Esther. We have also a big encouragement when we look to Sabine, she was also very sick at first, she also has a small hole in her heart. Baby Esther, we go for it!!!!!!!!!  

"Normal" daily life...

Today no spectacular or dramatic story, we have our daily life stories, but no day is the same.... Today Robert walked in our walker!! Just a little bit spectacular!!! Robert has been with us for a long time, he is now 10 months old and he came when he was just a couple days old. He is HIV+ but is doing very well. He has never crawled, but we think he will just skip that and start walking soon! He is a lovely boy and everybody loves him!

Then the two friends.... Cathy at the front (my daughter) and Jesica is  pushing her. Jesica came to Amecet in November, we are not sure about her age, maybe 2,5 years?? She doesn't talk, she just makes noises and when she does it in different tunes, it just likes if she is talking. It is amazing how she has changed.

She has her moods and she can change very fast from an angry face into a smiling face. But to see her changing into a normal little girl is really also spectacular!!

This is my last picture today: Sabine. This is also spectacular, when you see the picture, we used for our Xmas card (post on 30/12/2013) you see her picture, we have hope for her future, she was very sick, we have feared for her life, she has still a little hole in her heart, but the doctor says that it is closing!!  Now she is a beautiful little baby, who can smile so sweet, but also she has the loudest voice when she cries, that is also quite spectacular, for a baby with heart and lung problems.

So we do see a lot of beautiful things happening in Amecet, we have been very busy with the schools, YWAM has a preschool and a primary school. Last Monday the schools started again and there is always a lot of work to get them going. The school bus is not ready yet, but almost!!! We have also quite a number of secondary students, who have been living in Amecet in the past. We help them to go to boarding school. Some of them did not perform so well, we have offered them to change into a life skill training, like tailoring or carpentry. I will write about them another time.

Grace...

 Only 4 days ago Grace came to Amecet, I wrote about her in my last blog. On Friday, she had a rough day, she vomited her medicines several times, was laying down on the veranda, the whole day. But today she walks a bit around, she is still unstable and very slow, but she also smiles!!!!! And that is half of the healing process, I believe. What a beautiful smile, she has.... What a difference with the picture of 4 days ago!!!

And this is our primary school gang!! Angela, Julius and Helen. They are very excited about going to school again, tomorrow. We just went to buy school socks, and we gave them their pencils and note books. Tonight to bed early!! Grace was even telling us that she also wants to school, we promised her that her time will come, she first needs to get her strength back.