Amecet n'ainapakin (Shelter of Peace) is a ministry of Youth With A Mission (YWAM)in Soroti, Uganda. We are reaching out to HIV infected and affected children. We also are caring for new born babies, who lost their mother after the delivery. The third group of children we help, are children who need a safe place, they mostly come via the police. In this blog we want to share with you our stories, our pictures, our needs and blessings!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

A babyboy, weighing 700 grams only....

Yesterday, I was working in the office, someone came to call me, and said that there was a very small baby outside. I left my work and went to see the couple. The mother was holding a blanket, I looked in the blanket and I was not prepared for what I saw. They had told me a small baby, but this was a very, very tiny baby, those you see in pictures which are taken from the baby still in the womb....
The baby was born the day before in a health centre in the village. The mother was only pregnant for 5,5 month and had gotten malaria. This triggered the early birth of the baby... They discharged her yesterday and referred her with a letter to Amecet, for help for the baby.
I took the baby to our medical room, for weighing, only 700 grams, and I tried to get the temperature, the baby felt cold, but two of our thermometers couldn't get the temperature.  We got an extra blanket and a little hat (which way much to big). 
Esther and I talked together, we felt that this was too much for Amecet. This baby was so vulnerable, it needed a doctor around. I called one of the doctors from Soroti Hospital and he confirmed it. We explained it to the parents.  They looked confused, they had wanted us to care for the baby, I felt personally, that they had almost already given up that the baby would live. I understood that it is easier (?) to let the baby behind in Amecet than to go to the hospital and being with the little man all the time. But we went all together to the hospital, this little man deserved all the chances he could get.  
 The doctors looked at him and the nurse put a cannulla in his little tiny vein, she only tried once and she was in!!!!! Amazing! The little boy could not suckle from his mother's breast, so they were giving him a slow IV line and the following day they would start giving him breast milk, via a NG tube.
He was brought to a special (very) warm room, where more little, premature babies were, together with their mothers. He was layed on a warm bed and a heather above him. The mother had to stay with him in the room, the father was going home, to their other children and was suppose to come back the next day. I felt still some resistance with the parents, the mother was still weak from the delivery and the father had many concerns and worries. We bougtht the  IV medicins that they needed for the baby and  left some money for food and drinks and promised to come back the next day.
When I came in Amecet this morning, I heard that the mother stood on our doorstep this morning at 6.45 am, In her arms she was holding the body of her little son Joseph......

Why do I write about this....... I am not sure, it really touched me and I was yesterday again so touched by how vunerable this little baby was, at the other hand I was touched about the beauty of this little baby, only 5,5 months in the the womb and he was so beautiful, yes, so tiny, but so perfect!
This little man, Joseph, has been fighting for his life for almost 2 days, in very primitive circumstances, 
This blog is a tribute to Little Joseph, you have fought well, now you may rest in the loving arms of Jesus, 
Rest in Peace!!!! 

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