In the last 3 weeks we said goodbye to 8 children!!! This is really our joy, to see children go back home, happy and healthy!! The picture above was of one of them. This was a special happy occasion, the little Benjamin came to Amecet because his mother has a mental problem. Two years ago we had also a baby in Amecet from the same mother. That baby is adopted by a lovely family, here in Teso. The same family is now adopting this little Benjamin, so he will at least have a real brother. It was a very happy day!! You see the big brother who came with his parents to pick his new baby brother.

Every year we memorize World AIDS day in Amecet. We have a picture of each child that passed away in that year and one of the staff shares a memory of the child and light a candle. It is an emotional meeting, memories come back about the battle we fought for every child. We have also a beautiful bouquet of flowers, next to the candles; they represent all those children who "made" it through Amecet and are now at home with their relatives, or are adopted in their new family. They are going to school or some of them already work.

No, we don't talk here about a football player transfer, but about our dear Ali. Ali was brought to Amecet on 1/6 /2020 by the Police, we soon found the grandfather and heard that his parents abandoned him and nobody really wanted to care for him.

Lately, we received a number of small, new born baby's in Amecet.  Often we get first a phone call from the Probation Officer, a health centre or a relative. Because of the Corona, we are careful and when they come with the new baby, we let them sit, near the gate, under the mango tree, with Face masks. One of the staff comes with a blanket and we take over the baby (who is most of the times naked) from their blanket into ours. Dominique or me then, will do the intake and get all the details, while the baby gets the care inside the house..   

Before Amecet started in 2001, I was working with a project called FACE (Facing Aids with Compassion and Education). We travelled to the villages and we had a Mobile clinic for people suffering of HIV/Aids. There was counselling and  small income generating projects. That was in the time that the stigma for people with HIV/Aids was still very big. I saw many grandmothers caring for their grandchildren, since their own children had died because of AIDS. I felt for those strong ladies, who had to dig in their gardens to provide for their grandchildren. I started a small project, looking for sponsors who wanted to help a grandmother. I got a small group of families who I could give a small support every month. 

It is Party time!!! Baby Esther is over the 3 kg.!!!!  last week I told the staff, when Esther weighs more than 3 kg., we will get soda's!! And today we weighed her and she was 3,045 kg. so we have a party!!! It is amazing how this baby changed and survived, You can read her story in the blog of July 21, this baby was aborted and by "mistake", she came out alive, her weight was 1.2 kg. she was 2 months premature. We struggled with her, so small, so fragile, we had to feed her by NG tube and several times we had to put her on oxygen and IV. medication, but Esther is a fighter!!!  I am so proud of her!! We had given her the name Esther, I believe God has a special plan with her, like he had with Queen Esther in the Bible. We took her today for a special HIV test, we pray it will be negative, but since we don't  know anything about her mother, we need to do this test.

This picture is from 2013, Charles and Cathy are playing wedding (must have been after one of the staff got married.) this wedding was probably directed by Helen, who loved to play wedding. In Uganda the family of the groom has to pay dowry to the family of the bride. This is normally agreed during an introduction meeting, where the groom (to be) ,comes with his relatives and friends to the home of  the bride (to be) and the families are introduced to each other. The fathers and the uncles are than negotiating over the dowry price. Mostly they ask cows, goats, money and presents. This is at least done in Teso, the area around Soroti. Sometimes they don't agree and there won't be a wedding until an agreement is made... Sometimes the price is so high that the couple is going into debt, to pay the price. Sometimes the family of the bride agrees that the groom can pay afterwards, or in bits... And that was the case with the parents of David... 

In spite of the Covid 19 crisis, Amecet is functioning... We don't have  so many children as before, we work with less staff, only the staff who is able to live in, but we are do our core business, helping children to shine again!!! On this picture above (in Aug.) our social worker, Elias is going to bring Godfrey back to his family. Godfrey was found by the Police and thru the tracing, by hanging posters around the place where he was found, we found his family. He gained weight during his stay in Amecet and he is much more healthy now. Elias has been meeting the family before and we trust that Godfrey will do well at home again!!

The Amecet farm is part of the Amecet Ministry. It is set up to generate income for the children's ministry. It is a very valid part of Amecet. We hope that it brings more fruits in the future, like vegetables, fruits, milk and funds. In this blog I want to show you what we have in place right now, with pictures and simple explanation ( because I am a simple city girl :)!).

This is the picture of the blog of July 8th. A call from the hospital, it was about this baby Elijah. Elijah was born with a clubfoot and a rotating knee, then he had problems with the fingers on both hands and an eye problem. We are 5  weeks further and Elijah has kept us busy.... The mother died in the hospital on July 8th and the family could not commit themselves to bring the baby once, sometimes twice a week to the hospital. That is where Amecet came in...

A couple of months ago, the police brought Lucy to Amecet. A little girl of 4, maybe 5 years old. She was stolen and nobody knew where is came from. The Police is looking for the woman she was with, but up till today there are no clues where Lucy came from. We have put adverts in the National newspaper and she has been even on National TV. The Police have been checking the reports of missing children also from other parts of the country, all in vain.

Today the police arrived at Amecet with this baby.... It is a little baby girl with the weight of 1.2 kg........ The baby was stolen, but it is unknown from where. Concerned people brought the baby with the lady, who claimed to be the mother, to the police. They told the police that they never saw the lady pregnant, the lady had no breastfeeding and after being examined by a doctor it was confirmed that the lady could not have given birth 3 days ago, as she said... The police brought the baby to Amecet and will investigate where the baby comes from. When I saw the little girl, I felt so sad and also a kind of angry, who could take a little baby like this ?? It is a pre-mature baby, and she is very weak, she was not fed for hours...... I took her directly to the doctor (our neighbours) and she was diagnosed with a septic cord and low temperature. She got a cannula and is put on antibiotics via the I.V. we laid her in our incubator, so she is more protected and also more warm. When I fed her, she drank 30 ml!! She was so hungry, she cries, that is also a good sign.