We have been struggling with little Peter, almost from day 1. The last 19 days , he has been on the Oxygen machine. We fed him every 2 hours via the NG tube and it was stressful... Our oxygen machine stopped working, and Peter couldn't be without the help of the oxygen machine. We could borrow the machine from the clinic next door, but you can imagine what a stress that gave, and of course those things happen during the night.... We are very thankful for the help from Doctor Engulu, our neighbour. He has been coming to see Peter several times and we also had the paediatrician coming to Amecet to examine him. She found a congenital heart defect, this might the reason why he was born so much smaller than his brother and still didn't grow much in spite of the feeding we gave him. On Wednesday 26th of July, it was tense, several times we saw his saturation coming down, but then it went up again. The doctor came to see him, but we did all we could do.... We just made sure that there was someone with him all the time, holding him, praying for him, talking to him. So, he didn't die alone, he was loved and at 2.45 pm we could lay him in the arms of Jesus.  His struggle was over.

Elijah and his sister Divine are eating their first meal in Amecet. They are 2 years and 9 months old. They were referred by the Nutritional Unit in Soroti Hospital. Last week their mother came with them, we talked , but she was scared to leave them in Amecet, so we let them go. This week they came back, she was now ready to leave them with us for 2 months. We encouraged her to come and visit them and we could ensure her that the twins will come back to her.. In the meantime, she has to look for a better place to live.. They are malnourished, their weight is 6.5 kg (Divine) and 8 kg (Elijah). They love to eat, do not cry too much and they are already playing and smiling. 

One kg. is not so much, but if you only weighs 1.2 kg. and the you twin brother (who was born after you) weighs  2.3 kg. then is it another story..... Yesterday two little twin brothers, Peter and Simon, were brought to Amecet. They were born that same day and their mother died only 2 hours after the delivery.. The first born baby was very small and the second born baby was much bigger. we put them in our medical room, because especially the little one, needs lots of extra care. This morning we took them to the doctor and the doctor started them both on IV medication. We also give them Nevirapine, it is a drug for baby's whose mother was HIV+. This is not really sure, but we didn't have all the medical papers, just to be sure... Peter is the little one, he is not drinking much, but we will give him some time, we feed every 2 hours, if he will not do better, we will start feeding him through a NG tube. Pls. pray for these two precious boys, 1.2 kg. is not very much and they are both very vulnerable.

In the beginning of March, a lady came to Amecet, carrying a small boy. he was weak, malnourished, looked very pale and could not talk or walk. She asked help, she told us that she was his aunt and that there were no parents to care for him. We looked at his medical papers and saw that he was not referred to us, but to the main hospital in Soroti (they came from the village). Because of the state he was in, we also felt that he would be better helped in the hospital, there are doctors and he might have to have several tests done. We explained to the lady and send her on to the hospital. Two weeks later I got a phone call from the Nutritional ward in the hospital. If we were able to do the after care for a little boy, who was out of his serious phase, but needed more help. I went to the hospital to see the situation and found that it was Aron, the same boy who came 2 weeks earlier with his aunt to Amecet.

On 21/1/2022 the Probation Officer (child protection) brought a small boy to Amecet, we thought he was around 2 years old. He was found, alone, in a half finished building without a roof, early in the morning. We don't know if he has been there all night or if he has been put there just early that morning.

...leaving behind 3 precious new born baby's.....

We said goodbye to 4 children, all those 4 children lost their mother after birth. The families had heard about Amecet and asked us to help them. When someone dies, there is so much going on. The burial is often the next day, sometimes after 2 days. Many people come to join the burial, there is a meal for everybody and family travels to be part of this. Also the neighbours, people from he church are attending the burial. It is not a good place for a new born baby to be there, even during the week after the burial, many people come to visit and they sit around to talk. Sometimes they forget the baby.....

The car loaded with goats, Ground nuts, Maize and Beans moving to the village........ We had planned to revise our list with grandma's and needy families, all relatives from children who have been some time with us in Amecet. We were waiting for the the rains, so that the people could plant the maize, beans and ground nuts. And then, suddenly, the rains were there...... We tried to finish the list and called all the people on it, we wanted to ask what they wanted to plant in their gardens and if they were still living where we knew they lived before. The last time we brought seeds was long before Corona.. the calling was not easy, many of the older people don't have telephones, so we searched in our files to any numbers connected with the child.. Most of the people reacted surprised and happy and they wanted Maize, Beans and ground nuts, so we went ahead and bought many kilos of them. We had enough money to also buy two hoes (kind of spade) and a female goat for every family..... We grouped the families by area and in  5 trips, all the families (who are living quite apart from each other) received their gifts: 1 goat, 2 hoes, 10 kg Maize, 10 kg Beans and 10 kg, Ground nuts. 

We went for a day fieldwork, Andrew (who was driving), Pius (the new social worker) and me. We left around 9.30 in the morning. We were going to 3 different villages. We first stopped by the Probation Office in Soroti, one of the representatives of the office was going with us. We also had a 12 year old girl, Margret, with us (left in the the picture), we were going to bring her back home, but the problem was that she was not sure where her home was.....

In the last blog I wrote about the many Goodbye's, but this time I write about the many hello's to the new children we received in the last 2 weeks.

We have said a lot of goodbyes in the last weeks.... several children, who have been with us for quite some time, went home!!! This picture is from Deborah, she is a real miracle child. She was brought to Amecet in September 2022. (read the blog of 20/9/2022). A little sad girl of 15 months old, unable to stand or walk.  She was sick, fevers, didn't want to eat. We took her to the doctor, tests were done, but nothing came out of that, more tests were done and then they found TB. It was not really very clear, but the doctor decided that we started her on the anti TB medicines. And in two weeks we saw a different!!!She started to eat, to gain, to play (a bit) and to smile (a bit).. We had patience, she had to take those anti TB medicines for 6 months... But it was so beautiful to see her getting better and stronger and she started to walk and talk. It was a joy to have her with us and such an encouragement!!!

We have had a busy week....  We got 5 small babies from different places, They all had one sad thing in common, they lost their mother...