"Run for a child" Marathon in Soroti

Yesterday, Saturday morning at 8 am, it was quite busy on the Sports field in the middle of Soroti Town. There were already many people registered and they were receiving their running number. Of course the fan club of Amecet was also present!!!

We parked the car close by so we could use it to rest and to change diapers!! Even Max was with us, this is a miracle, you can read about him in our previous blogs.

We were encouraging our auntie's of Amecet, six of them were running: Sharon, Martha, Barbra, Winnie, Faith and Rebecca (not on the picture). The Marathon was 8 km. long and some of them were running on their slippers.  

The Guest of Honor was the Minister of State for Relief and Disaster Ecweru. On this picture he (in the blue) gives the last instructions and on the blow of the whistle, he will lead the group, running from the Sports.

And there they go, as Amecet fan club, we hopped in the car and we drove to a spot where they would pass and we cheered and encouraged them. We were just back when the first runners arrived back on the Sports. 

After all the runners were back on the Sports, we had a gathering with some speeches and MP Ecweru gave Amecet the money which was raised. I was receiving for Amecet 5,420,000 Ush!! (around 1,700 Euro). We were very happy, also for all the appreciation and the trust we received from the community and government officials.

There were some prices made available for the first runners who arrived, the first one was a boy who left quite a while after everybody and arrived as the first! He must be the next Kiprotich!!!!!

100 Years Uganda Police:" Run for a child" .

The Ugandan police is celebrating 100 years of existence on 3/10/2014.

As part of the activities, they are organizing a marathon in Soroti on 6/9/2014. The purpose of this marathon is to raise money towards support for the vulnerable children in Amecet!

We are working a lot with the Police, many children, who are in a crisis situation are brought to the Police and they bring them to Amecet. The child is safe and in the meantime the situation will be assessed, by the Police, Probation office and Amecet. Our Social workers Elias and Simon are quite busy with the children who come via Police. There are sometimes children found in town, they are lost, so the family must be traced. There are children who are abused, that cost a bit more of time and counselling to find a safe home for the child again. Sometimes there is a new born baby found, this are emergency cases and we are happy to help.

On this picture the Soroti District Police Commander is visiting Amecet. It is good to network and have good relationships with the partners. We are very honored that the Police choose Amecet for their celebration activity from several other NGO's. It means recognition of our work and a chance to tell more people about our Ministry and how to care for their vulnerable children themselves. Simon has gotten the opportunity to speak on several radio stations in Teso, to talk about the children and people can call in to ask questions. There are 4 places in Soroti where people can register to join the 8 km. Marathon trough Soroti town. We have up till now registered 200 people in Amecet alone and people can also buy a T-shirt, which are donated and the money is also for Amecet.

I let you know how the day went!

When it rains, the garden must be ready...

I first want to let you know that I (Els) am back in Soroti. I have had a very good break, longer than my usual vacation, time to rest, visit old friends and enjoy the life in Holland!

It has been very busy in Amecet and very quiet in this Blog. My colleagues were so busy and they had not much time over to write in the blog, our apologies for this.

 I will try to bring you up to date, lots of things happened, so check on us in the coming days.......

It is raining quite a lot in Uganda, that might mean a good harvest coming up... The people start preparing their gardens and as Amecet we also play a role in that. We have a group of grandmothers of children who have been living with us for a while, most of them are HIV+ and have lost their parents due to AIDS. To help their grandmothers, we provide them with seeds, so the family has enough to eat and sometimes even can sell their crops. Simon and Elias have been busy the last couple of days, providing the families with seeds.

 This grandmother cares for her grandson, she is a sweet old lady and is always so excited about the seeds we give. When we visit her on other times, she always shows us her garden.

We not only give to grandmothers, this is Susan, a 15 year old mother The seeds help her to provide for her and her son.

Around 10 years ago, Martha lived in Amecet. After she became more strong and healthy, we resettle her to her grandmother and her aunt. The seeds help the family now for many years to survive.

 We do also work with the grandfathers, this is Isaak's grandfather, happy with the seeds.

 Ivan's grandmother is cripple, but together with her grandsons she is able to work in her garden.

 When we have enough funds, we give also other help to the grandmothers. In the past, we gave a goat, orange trees, a plough and a bull and one year we gave a cow to the every family. Mary Christine shows here her last calf, she has in total 4 cows now. They look very well after the animals and it is a big investment for the family.

Evelyn gets her seeds from Elias. Evelyn lost her parents and lives now with her brother and sister. There is some family living around them, who keep an eye on them, but the seeds mean a lot to them!

This grandmothers project is a very vital part of our ministry, we help the families to be stronger and able to look after their own children.

Bye Bye Michael!!!

   

As you probably all know, we had a wonderful boy in our home for the last 2.5 years. Michael came to Amecet after he was left alone in the hospital. Because his mother was never found again, we have been praying for a family to come along for him. Michael has cerebral palsy and needs help with everything. He can not lift his head or control his muscles. But this boy is incredibly bright and happy. He was the sunshine of almost everybody in Amecet. If you have a bad moment or bad day, just go over and talk for a while with mike and he will make you day. Often we had worries about his future because staying forever in a baby home is not what we hoped for him. Then a family came along from the USA.

Michael handed over by the probation officer.

They fell in love with him as soon as they saw his profile at the adoption agency. His God given parents have been spending time with him when they came over in the end of June and Michael started to love them as well. Because of the paperwork and another son, they had to go back without Michael for one month. In the mean time, we talked with Michael about his parents and showed him pictures every day, and he loved it. Last Thursday his mother came over to pick Michael. He was so happy to see her, and even when she just had to pick a bag from the car he already started crying.
We found saying goodbye to him to be very difficult to do. We prayed for him and his family and sang our special goodbye song for them.
Now when you enter the living room in the mornings something is missing.  Our morning greetings from Michael.
But we also know that God has giving him this family and that puts us in awe of God's faithfulness!

Michael and his parents

Baby's and one more week with Michael!!!

There are always new things happening in Amecet! Often so much that it is difficult to keep up with the blog at times. 

 

Right now we have our 3^rd set of twins! Apio Mary and Achen Betty came on Tuesday. Both weigh a little over 2kilos and lost their mother while giving birth to them. 

Friday baby Samuel (left picture )came who also lost his mother during his birth. He is premature and only weighs a 1.5kilos.

 Then just today (Sunday) Simon Peter arrived. He also weighs only around 1.5kilos. Both are being fed by NG tube and being kept in the medical room. We ask that you join us in praying for both of these little guys.  That they would tolerate the milk and that all their bodily functions would be working properly! They are both quite susceptible at this point of their little lives.

  

We have also seen the return of Tom and Lazarus. Both have been here before. Please be praying for both of these little guys as well. That they would both continue to gain weight and be healthy. It’s wonderful to see them smiling and laughing once again.

 

   

                                                                      As we are saying hello and welcoming all of the above children, we are about to say a bitter/sweet goodbye to someone very special. Many of you know Michaels’ story. He is an amazing little boy who has a smile that lights the whole room up. We have prayed for quite some time now that God would bring an equally special family along for him. And now Our Faithful Father has done so! Michaels’ God given mother will come to get him around the 29^th. They will leave for Kampala where they will stay a couple weeks to get his passport and visa. Please be praying for this transition for all who are involved. There will be many new things Michael will be experiencing for the first time. Although we love Michael very much and a bit sad to see him leave, we are equally excited. His opportunities will be endless! We know that God’s hand has been orchestrating this from the very time Michael was brought here. We will keep you posted with Michaels’ situation!

The story of Max

     As you know, we have many volunteers coming through Amecet. Saffron stayed together with Lucy for a year in Uganda and for 3 months in Amecet. Tonight is their goodbye party. Just want to share how proud I am of these girls. The story of Max is written by Saffron and moved me to tears. because Amecet is there for the children. But these children do so much for us auntie's!

 THE STORY OF MAX

    Tonight during evening worship, with the children, I looked over at a small 12 year old boy named Max and nearly cried seeing him singing along worshiping God. This is a HUGE thing for Max and here’s why.
  Getting picked ...up from the post office to go to Amecet, Max was in the car just lying there with not much life in him. I was later to discover that he was in the last stages of AIDS and was brought to Amecet to die. He also had meningitis at that time too and as a result of that he developed dementia which then left him with a mental age of a baby. From here onwards it only got worse, he soon slipped into depression refusing to eat, drink or take his medicine, which he has to take to try and keep the AIDS under control. We then put a tube into his nose that went to his stomach so we could at least give him fluids and his medicine, however he was still refusing to eat. He then started to scream during the night out of fear and couldn’t sleep. So we asked an AIDS specialist doctor to come and see him, who then put him on anti-depressants and sleeping tablets. Seeing him like this was one of the hardest things I’ve had to witness and we all thought and prayed that God would take him soon because his value of life was not something that I would want anyone to go through. Well God had a different plan for Max and weeks later I started to witness the miracle that this boy is. It all started off with a smile, which doesn’t seem much but when you saw how this boy was, it was huge. Then he started to laugh at the toddlers or someone dancing to music, and then it went to him drinking a little bit here and there to him starting to eat the odd bit of food. Soon Max was eating and drinking like a normal 12 year old boy, which gave us the hope and encouragement we needed. Then one morning I was sitting with him saying the word ‘Yoga’ (which means hello in his language) and out of nowhere he said it back to me, to say I was shocked was an understatement. I had never heard him speak before. Word by word he was saying a little bit more and with this new communication we was able to communicate that if he started to take his medicine we would take his tube out (he hated his tube) and soon enough Max was taking his own medicine. I cannot tell you how much of a miracle this is alone, he use to fight you when you gave him his medicine and you would sometimes be sitting there for 30 minutes to an hour trying to get his medicine in him. Max now speaks more than he did when he first came to Amecet. The photos attached show was Max was and how he is today.

He is now able to sit on his own, eat, drink, take his own medicine and talk. And let me tell you he is one bossy boy but he is our little miracle. And tonight Max started us off in worship.

   I’m writing this to tell you that when I see Max I see Gods unfathomable love for us. We had lost hope in Max of ever getting better but God didn’t. God knew the miracle and testimony this boy would be to so many of us and he loved a little boy like Max enough to not lose hope but to perform one of the biggest miracles I have ever witnessed. So when we lose hope in ourselves or in others know that God doesn’t, His love is beyond our own understanding so what seems impossible to us is possible to God. You are NOT unreachable or redeemable, have faith and He will pull through, just hang in there Gods got you.

 

Sharing His love

            There is really never a dull moment in Amecet! We have been quite busy over the past couple of weeks. We were able to resettle 7 children back home. Among them were Grace, Sabina, and Lawerence. This was quite helpful because we had become very full. We also had at least 10 different children’s cases from the police. The more we spoke of being full, the more children showed up! We even had 5 extra children show up all in 1 day!

Lawrence with his grandmother

Sabina and her sister

Last week we had 3 babies that had developed pneumonia. We turned our medical room into an IC room. And after a week of treating them, we are happy to say that they are all better and back in their own beds. We were becoming quite tired and looking forward to a good night of sleep.  

baby Rose

Sunday a lady carrying a baby came to our compound. When I saw the baby, I was really shocked. I thought perhaps the baby was already dead. He was at least 2 months premature and had some characteristics of a child with some physical disabilities.

 When the auntie released him to our care, I noticed he was actually still breathing. I quickly called the doctor who serves on the children’s ward at the hospital. We then rushed him there, so the doctor could review him. Afterwards we quickly brought him back and placed him in the incubator. Then began starting him on IV meds and gave him an NG tube so we could feed him. His family had only given him warm water over the past 2 days. He began picking up a bit. During the night we kept a pretty close eye on him and he remained in fair condition. But by morning his heart rate and oxygen levels began dropping rather quickly. So we decided to get him out of the incubator and hold him.  Just to show him we were close. As soon as we began doing this, his heart rate and oxygen levels began picking up straight away. It once again showed us how important it is to give our love to these children. Baby Emmanuel, (God with us) died that afternoon. But we really believe God placed him in our care so we could share His love with this special little baby.

Dominique holding Emmanuel