This week two new baby's were brought to Amecet. The first baby was brought by his mother and a nurse from the HIV baby clinic in Soroti Hospital. The baby was 2,5 months old and his name was Samuel. The mother was HIV+ and was not doing so well, her Viral Load was very high, so she could not give breastfeeding to her baby. The nurse asked us if we could help the mother, by taking Samuel for some time in Amecet. .... 

This morning I went with Elijah back to the Orthopedic doctor in Soroti Hospital. I went together with Peace, one of our staff, because Elijah doesn't like me so much, I don't know why, but I don't want him to be stressed, so his big friend Peace carried him. It is good that he can express his favorite aunties, I really tried to become friends with him, but no, maybe because I always go with him to the hospital and he doesn't like the doctors either!! The braces, Elijah wears at night are becoming too small, so we went for a bigger size.....

This picture, above, shows the end of this amazing story, but we go back to July 21, when the Police from another District, brought a very small baby to Amecet..... It was an infant of 4 days old, it was a girl and her weight was 1.2 kg!!! 

If you have read over last post (from yesterday), you would know that we said goodbye to 8 children in the last 3 weeks. It means that we are left now with only 4 baby's!!! We have never had such a small number of children, but it is also good for us, we don't have so many staff workers and with Christmas and new year, half of the crew is free....

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!!