A re-settle story....

In Amecet we like to re-settle the children back to their families as soon as they are stable enough. If there are no parents, we look into the family who is able and willing to care for the child.

We receive many children in Amecet via the Police. This are children who are lost, run away or there is a problem in the family and the child needs a safe place. In the first 6 months of 2015, we got 22 children via the Police. Last week, a boy was brought to Amecet by the police, they come with a letter from the Officer in charge of Child and Family Protection Unit. They tried to get some information from the boy, but sometimes that is impossible, because the child is too young.

 

 This boy was called Juma, but to some of us he said that his name was Tom. He had big wounds on his legs and many jiggers in his feet. It took time to get them out and treat the wounds. We took him to the doctor and he was started on antibiotics. In the mean time, Elias and Simon (our Social Workers) tried to get his story, which was not easy, because it changed all the time. He told us one day he was 10 years old and the next day that he was 12 years old. His mother had put him in a taxi, to go to his father, but he got out somewhere and had been taken in by a local counsellor. They tried to get him to his family, but when it didn't work out, they brought him to the Police (this was after 2 weeks!). The Police brought him to Amecet.

After a lot of questions Simon and Elias decided to bring him back to his mother. They notified the Police Officer of child and family protection and the probation officer. They all climbed in the car, together with Juma/Tom and went on the way. It was far, more than 2 hours drive, when they came in the area where Juma/Tom had told us that he came from, they went first to the local Police station there. They also climbed into the car, together with somebody who recognised the boy and could bring them to his home.

There they were met by the whole neighbourhood, when they see that something is going on, they are all coming to see! They found the mother, on the picture here, you see Amos, the Probation Officer, handing Juma over to his mother. The whole story was told now, the boy is 8 years old and his name is Juma. His  mother had put him in a taxi to Soroti, to his grandmother, where also his other brothers and sisters stay. His grandmother stays almost around the corner from Amecet!!! Juma didn't want to go to school and to his grandmother, so he had made up other stories.....

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

After handing Juma back to his mother, everybody climbed back in the vehicle and went on the journey back to Soroti. Elias was driving, so Simon could rest... It is not always easy to resettle a child, but at least the child is safely back with his mother: Mission accomplished!!!

Puppy love...

One of our dogs got puppies. And she is a very nice dog and let the children touch them and hold them. They are now 4 weeks old, so it is allowed!! The children love the little dogs and they are sitting with them all the time. It is good that they are going to school tomorrow (I mean the children:)). And we will find a good home for all the puppies in a week or 2.

 Innocent 

Sarah and Joseph

 Catherine

 Helen 

Mama Lady with her five little ones, 

Emma is smiling, but lazy!!!

Emmanuel (Emma) was our Christmas baby in December 2014! At first it took some time, he was small and didn't seem such a happy baby. He was left by his mother, who has a mental illness. We have been trying to find relatives, but all in vain. In the meantime Emma really changed, he is now our most "smiling " baby in Amecet. You just call his name and he gives you one of his smiles! He is now 9 months old and he doesn't want to crawl. He only sits and smiles! We try, but no, Emma just sits!! We have seen it with another little boy, he also refused to crawl, and suddenly he started to pull himself up and started to walk! So we think this may be the case with Emma too.

We are working together with Probation office to look for a foster family. But we all love him!!!!

Margret gets a Papa and a Mama!!!

 On June 17th 2015 a little girl was brought to Amecet by the Police. She was left by her mother in a small local bar./ She was very sick from malaria, by that time.

In the blog of 17th June and 14th July you can read about the tracing we did, trying to get her mother, or anybody who knew her mother. We have put adds in the local newspaper, announcements on the local radio and posters on the trees, but no body knew the child or the mother. We got a family name, Auma, the lady in the bar heard the mother call the child with that name. We gave her the name Margret, everybody should be known by a name, we feel. We think that she is around 3 years old. And it is a cute little girl, she made us laugh and we will miss her. But the best place for a child is within the family and today she was officially given to her new parents!! They have been visiting her, sitting with her, playing with her, so that the "bonding" already started. And it was so good to see Margret running to them, when they entered our compound, calling "papa"!

This is the official handover, left is Amos, the Probation Officer, who officially gives Auma Margret to her new parents, who will foster her for 3 years, after that they will adopt her. We believe that Margret will be loved and cared for. So this story, which started so sad, has a happy ending!!!

Baby Grace,3 weeks old and only weighing 1.3 kg!

 Today a young man with his aunt came to ask if we could help. The Doctor of the hospital referred them to Amecet. His wife was very sick in the hospital, since the birth of their premature baby girl, 3 weeks ago. We sat down and took all the information and I asked them how the baby was doing, the baby was fine they said. So I asked them to bring the baby and two hours later, they came... When I saw the little girl I was shocked, this baby was not "just fine", this baby was very small and in need of good care.The situation in the family was very difficult, the mother is very serious ill, not sure if she would even survive and then this very little baby girl. All our beds were occupied, but we shifted some to other rooms and the little lady has a bed. She is now laying, all bundled up to keep good warm, after a bottle of milk (30 ml.) Please pray for baby Grace.. 

We do have more "extra care" children at the moment. This are Samuel and Christine, they are twins and they are 4 days younger than baby Grace who arrived today. The twins arrived 2 weeks ago, but they weighed double  of Grace. But they do not drink very well. This picture is when they came (1/9), by now we feed them both with a NG tube and during the weekend Christine was on IV drip. They are stable now, but still they do not gain much YET!

Greetings from Gabdesia.....

 Today Elias and I went to visit Gabdesia in her home. Two weeks ago we brought her back home (read the blog of Sept. 1) and we were very anxious how she was doing. Honestly, I was a bit scared to go and to maybe find her sick or even unable to walk or so.  We have been praying a lot for her, but we have done that also when she was still with us in Amecet. Gabdesia needs a change of mind, and attitude.

We took the weighing scale with us and we drove to her village (for about one hour). What we saw made me soooo happy!! She was moving around her hut and smiling and happy. Her mother was also very happy and when we weighed her, she had gained!!! So we praised her and her mother and we had a nice chat with them, encouraging them and advising them. They asked us to greet every body in Amecet and we will see them in Soroti in about one month time, when they have to come for the doctor and for new medicines. When we left, Gabdesia asked if we could give her a lift to a political meeting, which was going on a bit further, on our way back. We had to laugh, Gabdesia who wanted to go and listen to a local politician who was talking about the election next year! But so good, Gabdesia has a life at home again!!!

Who can help us????

I have never done this before, but this time I want to ask if you can help us, or maybe know somebody who can help us.

We are in need of small sleeping bags, we can use for our small and pre-mature  baby's. You can see one on this picture below, this is one of our small baby's, Samuel, he is part of twins. Even it is warm in Uganda, we have seen that we really need to keep our small baby's very warm, so they don't use their energy for keeping warm, but they use their energy for growing.

Maybe you have still somewhere a sleeping bag like this, (or similar like this),  and you do not need it anymore, please can you think about sending it to us????

Th other thing we are in need of are small quilts. We use them in the beds of the children, we had several quilts send to us, but that was a long time ago. They are now getting worn out, the holes are coming in all of them. Do you know anybody who likes to make those quilts? The size should be 1mtr. x 1 mtr. It would be so great if we could get some new ones.

If you can help us, pls. send it to: Amecet, PO Box 792, Soroti, Uganda. Pls. mention your email address in the packet, so we can let you know that we received it.

Eyalama noi (Thank you very much)!!

Rest in Peace Baby Lawrence

Today we brought Baby Lawrence to his last resting place in the village. He died at 1 am this morning.

Baby Lawrence was a pre-mature baby when he was brought to us on June 23. His mother had passed away after the Cesarean operation. It was a small baby, who at first, didn't want to drink, we fed him by NG tube. But after some time he was doing better, he could drink from the bottle and he was gaining slowly. He was not sickly. On Tuesday evening he was having problem with breathing and he had a beginning pneumonia. Janneke, our nurse, started him on IV medication and on Wednesday morning she took him to the doctor. He was put on some more medication. Because of his problems in breathing he was put on the oxygen in the evening. On Thursday morning he had a real attack, sever problems in breathing, was given medication, nebulisers and the doctor came to see him. Janneke had done everything right we just had to observe and Pray, he said! We did that both, the whole day and he was getting a bit stable, until 3 pm, another sever attack in breathing, he cried and we couldn't do anything to get him stable and comfortable. We prayed together for him and he stopped crying!! He fell asleep, still severe problems in breathing....

 I took this picture at around 6 pm, knowing that I would not see him alive anymore. I went home and Janneke took over (it had been her free day). I got a phone call from Janneke at 1 am, Lawrence had passed away in his sleep.

In the morning, Simon went to get a coffin made and after that Emmanuel carried the coffin in our car and we left to bring him back to his family. When we arrived there, a bed was carried out of the hut and the little coffin was placed on it. people gathered to mourn together. We had informed them by mobile phone what has happened. This afternoon he will be buried, next to his mother...

We drove back to Soroti, still a bit shocked, it had all happened too fast. We know we had done everything we could, but still....

Dear Lawrence, your life has been too short, not even 12 weeks old, but we know that you are safe now! 

Update and making difficult decisions

 This Sagal, the little boy who was brought to us on Friday, I wrote about him in our blog. It is amazing if you see the difference in his eyes!! He still has a long way to go, but the beginning is there! he is quite amusing, he can talk and even walk, on his skinny legs. And he is so small and tiny, still under the 7 kg, but he is three years old, so he understands a lot. He knows what he wants and he has a strong will!! When he decides that he doesn't want to drink his milk, but he wants to eat a guava instead....than you have to be very creative to get the milk inside him first, before the guava. Janneke took him to the hospital yesterday and he is checked and blood tests were done, we have good hope about him, we can see him getting interest in the toys and what do you think of this beautiful smile??

When we re-settle children back to their home or relatives, most of the times we keep contact, especially when we have some doubts. Joseph is one of those children,he has a severe cleft pallet and is in need of an operation. When he is 10 kg he can be operated. His situation is a bit complicated, because his mother is in prisons. In the blog of January 10, 2015, you can read his story and how we resettled him back with his mother...in the prisons.

We go weekly to the prisons to give a food supplement to the mothers with small children and so we see Joseph very often. We have been weighing him, to see if he was gaining towards the 10 kg. At first he did, but the last two months he was not gaining, but loosing weight, We talked with the mother and the Prison authorities and we all agreed that we should take him back for a while. The first two days he cried a lot, missing his mum, but now he is doing better. Sarah likes him very much and you see them playing here. He is also doing his first steps and.....he is gaining!! we are happy with that, his teeth are growing and he really needs this operation! Next week, when we go to the prisons to give the food supplements, we will take him with us, to visit his mother!

Then we made a difficult decision this week about Gabdesia. I have written several times about her. We see her going up and then she is going down again. She gets special little sacks with a peanut paste from the hospital. And they really helped her, many calories in a small quantity. But since some weeks she throws them away, we find them everywhere, she eats half of them and then she dumps it. She also didn't want to eat much. we have tried everything, talking, begging, being firm etc. etc. the only thing she kept saying is that she wanted to go home. So we decided that we had to bring her home. She is 14 years old, So yesterday Elias and I brought her back to her village, with medicines, with a box peanut paste and clothes and other things. On the picture you see her standing in the middle of her sisters and neighbour children. She is happy, smiling.

Please keep praying for Gabdesia, that it will turns out all for the good!!! 

We will visit her again in two weeks.