On April 4 I wrote a blog about some children who were abandoned by their mothers, we have some good news about two of them and I start with the baby on the picture. He is around 5 months old, we gave him the name Peter and he was left behind in the hospital, with a not. You can read the note in the previous blog.  Our Social workers have worked hard on this  case. We made posters and hang them in the hospital. We did announcements over the local radio and we placed a message in the local newspaper.

At  this moment we have 8 children in Amecet, who are abandoned, most by their mother, but some also by their families, after the mother was taken into Police custody (for child abuse) or when the mother passed away.. Our social workers try to find the relatives or search among the relatives for a safe home to resettle the child. If that is not working out, the Probation Officer and the Police will ask us to find a local foster family who want to adopt the child in the future. Recently it seems that we have more abandoned children and I was thinking about this, why is a mother abandoning her baby, the baby she carried for 9 months and who she fed and cared for?? 

It was for us in Amecet, a very special day........ We were able to give the final adoption orders from the Court, to 25 families!!!

Today, new twins were brought to Amecet. A boy and a girl... This brings the sets of twins to 3 in Amecet... And all 3 sets are boy/girl.......

Maybe you heard that the schools were closed in Uganda for almost 2 years..... January 2022 all the schools opened again and Elias, one of our two social workers , has been very busy to help the students we sponsor. With the help of a study support of the foundation The Figurant from the Netherlands, we are able to sponsor a number of students with their secondary school or life skill course. We focus mostly on the children living with HIV/AIDS and who are orphans. To give them a chance to be able to get a living after their school or course.

This week, our social worker Elias,  brought  Ocen back to his relatives in the village. When he was brought to Amecet, a couple of months ago, he was not sick or malnourished, he was a bit dull and sad, but that is completely over..... I made this picture some days ago, when they suppose to have their nap. He was standing in his bed, shouting to the other toddlers, to do the same and to make as much noise as possible.. His story is sad, as many stories of the children we get in Amecet. Ocen was brought by two gentlemen and a police officer, one of the two gentlemen said he was the former boyfriend of Ocen's mother. The mother had disappeared. We took Ocen in Amecet and our social workers started to trace for the mother.  It should be also the work of the police, but most of the times it is Amecet who is doing this work. Our two social workers, Simon and Elias, are the one's who trace for the relatives of the children in Amecet who are abandoned. Later came out, that the former boyfriend is the real father and the other gentleman is the real grandfather. In a situation like that, we can not just bring Ocen back to his father, knowing that he doesn't want him and might neglect him. We need to bring the child back to his relatives, but it has to be safe!! The social workers found where the mother came from, they traveled to her village and found the grandmother there and uncles and aunties. It was still a process working towards the day that Elias brought him there. The local authorities were involved and at the end Ocen was welcome. The mother was not at home, she is wandering around, but at least there is a home with a grandmother.

Last week we got a phone call from a health centre in the village, if we could help a 2 years old girl, who was severely malnourished. The mother had a mental problem, so the father had brought her to the health centre. We agreed and the next day, a nurse brought the little girl and her father. We did an intake, but the father didn't know much, he didn't know the date of birth of his daughter and he did not many answers on our questions. One thing was very clear: this child needed help!!! When we saw her, we knew that she might be at least 3 years old, she had her teeth, but the upper front teeth were already rotten. She was very swollen and had oedema all over her body. Rashes on the legs, she was in a bad shape. Severe protein deficiency....

As we had only one toddler, a month ago, at the moment we have 5 toddlers and they run or crawl everywhere. Only last week we got 4 new children in Amecet. It makes the whole atmosphere different, because they run, they fall and they fight.... you need eyes everywhere..

The new year started with the coming of this little baby, on the first of January at 9 am, the Police brought this little baby girl. They gave her the name Rose, the Police lady who brought her to us, is called Rose. The story is that a girl of around 13 years, was in the hospital with the baby, she asked a lady to hold the baby for a minute, because she was needed in the ward, where her sister was admitted. The lady took the baby, willing to help, but the girl didn't come back..... The baby was reported to the nurses, who on their turn, reported the baby to the police. and so ended the baby in Amecet.

This is Proscovia, she is not born on Christmas, but she came this week in Amecet. Again a very sad story. She was born 10 days ago. Her mother gave birth in a hospital,  but there were complications, they referred them to another, bigger hospital. From there, they couldn't handle the situation either, so they referred them to Soroti Hospital. The mother was sick, she had a lot of pain and she started to swell ( according to the father, who brought the baby). She died in Soroti hospital, 6 days after she had given birth to Proscovia.  They went home to bury the mother, and that was the reason that they came to Amecet when Proscovia was already 10 days old. 

Today we had again a party!!! The Christmas party for our staff... Every year we divide our staff in two groups. One group is free with Christmas and the other group is free with New Year.. To make the rota for those two weeks is a challenge!!!  Todays we had our party with all the staff, and tomorrow the first group is free.  We all got a name of another staff member and we bought a gift for that person 

It is so amazing that Helen Raby (from UK) and I moved into Amecet, on 15 December 20 years ago..... We could only use half of the house, in the other half of the house was still a lot of work to do. My room was our living room until the big living room was finished. Three days later we picked Sarah from the village. Sarah was the inspiration for Amecet. I met  her in the village and she touched my heart. She was so sick and so weak. I promised her that she would be the first child in Amecet, and there were times that I didn't know if she would make it..