New Beginnings at Amecet Children’s Home
After a season of transition, we are grateful to reconnect with all our friends, supporters, and partners through our blog once again.
Transition leadership
Els van Teijlingen has officially retired from Amecet. After 24 years of faithful service and 100% dedication to the children of Soroti and the surrounding area, it's time to return to the Netherlands.
Amecet has still an important role to play in Teso region..
In the last blog, I wrote about Francis, a little premature baby. Francis went to be with Jesus... It was sad to let him go, we have fought for his life till the end, but we couldn't safe him. He was 2 weeks with us and also 2 weeks old. His mother had died after the delivery, which had happened in the village. We bought a small coffin and drove to the village of the grandparents. They received the coffin and we gave a report from aal that had happened. They had not been to Amecet to visit Francis, because they live far, deep in the village. They were grateful for the help we gave and would bury Francis next to his mother. When we drove back to Soroti, I was thinking about all the children who had died in Amecet, during the last 24 years... There have been many... and quite a number died in my arms. I have cried over all the children we had to let go. We always wanted life for them and we did everything to help them, but for those children we were a doorway to Heaven. We knew that they would be safe in His arms, no more pain, no more rejection, no more medicines or injections. Francis is with Jesus now.
14 new children in the last 3 weeks..
Baby Francis, here on the picture, is one of them. A little boy, who was brought by his uncle. He was born that very morning at home. His mother died after giving birth. She was multiple handicapped, mentally and she was also blind and deaf. Nobody knows who the father is of this little boy. His weight was 1.3 kg. and he was feeling cold, so he was put in the incubator. He is now a week with us and he is doing a bit better, we have to feed him with a NG tube, because he is too weak to drink himself.
My last Ugandan Visa !!!!!!!
After being 28 years in Uganda, more than 15 Visa's (tourist, work permit, residence visa and special pass), I received this morning my last one!! I feel mixed about it, happy that I don't have to go to immigration again and not to have to pay a lot of money every time, but `sad that this part of my life, here in Uganda, is almost over.. The cup of coffee definitely helps a lot!!
Rescued from the pitlatrine...
Last week , the police brought a newborn baby to Amecet. This baby was rescued from a pit latrine. A pit latrine is a toilet, it is a deep pit, with a small building build on it. The baby was found around 5am, but it took some hours to break the little building to get the baby out. The baby was rushed to the hospital, where the first aid was given, cleaned and the baby was brought to Amecet.. The baby had been thrown into the pit, together with the placenta, in the hospital they had cut the cord. The baby was cold and had problems with breathing. He had all kind of rashes; his eyes were swollen.
Een nieuw bericht van Amecet...
July was a month with assessments and report writing.. On this picture you can see our Management committee. Every registered children's Home in Uganda has a Management committee. In our committee is the Probation Officer from Soroti District and the Probation Officer from Soroti City, The Mayor from Soroti City West, The health inspector and the Health Officer and then our Amecet leaders team. We had our 6 monthly meeting. It was also time for our 6 monthly report to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, this time, together with a report of Probation Office and a report of the health inspector. We got a lot of inspectors checking Amecet. Everything went well and every inspection was good. So a good report went to Kampala.
Chickenpox in Amecet...
Robbert was the first victim, and he was just doing so well, gaining, happy and playing.. He is feeling miserable now. Chickenpox might be a normal childhood sickness for many of us, but for malnourished children with a low immunity, it can be a killer. When I heard in the morning, a couple of days ago, when I arrived in Amecet, that we had 3 children with chickenpox, my heart almost stopped. And my mind went back to 2005, when we had a chickenpox outbreak in Amecet. Many children got it and also some of the aunties. Two children died because of the chickenpox, both children were HIV+ and new in Amecet, they were very, very weak and this sickness was just too much for them.
Children with hydrocephalus asking for help..
We have a steady flow of people who come at our door for help, some come to ask for transport money back to the village. They were admitted in the hospital and discharged, but no money anymore to travel back to their village. Other people come for reading glasses, which we receive to give out to people. Sometimes people come for help to buy medicines which are prescribed by the doctor and there is also a group of mothers who come with their child who is suffering from hydrocephalus (water in the head). Sometimes the heads are huge and very heavy to carry. The mothers are struggling so much, they come with the baby to Amecet for help, it is very hard to carry the child, they have to be very careful with supporting the head, which is too heavy for the neck.
7 new small children in 1 week...
Sarah was the first baby, who was brought, she was born 2 months too early and her weight was only 1.1 kg. She was laid in our new incubator, which we just received from a Dutch foundation: Verenigde Hoop. We had to feed her by a NG tube, because she was too weak to drink.. She is now 9 days with us and she is doing good, she has gained a little and looks alert. Sarah was born by a caesarean operation and the mother died, due to multi organ failure after the operation. The very sad thing was that Sarah was part of twins, the other baby was a still born and already deteriorated when the baby was taken out. Sarah was brought from a hospital, by ambulance.
Continuation on "Corruption in the Village".....
In the blog of two weeks ago, I wrote about baby Paul, who was abandoned by his mother. And how one of the local leaders, the situation used to get richer himself. We had been hanging posters around the area and one of the uncles recognised the baby on the picture.
The rains have started....
When the rains are coming, people start to plough their gardens.... After a couple of months of drought, the land is dry and sandy, but even after one good rain shower, the new grass is coming out and when you thought that there was nothing growing, it was all dry and soil, you are every time again so surprised what there is all hiding in the ground... The ground is green again and the plants are growing....
Burials......
We went to two burials, yesterday, we went to the burial of Emmanuel and today to the burial of Joshua. It goes so very different than in the West. As you can see on the picture, in the middle is the bed, with the coffin on it and everybody sits around it. When you arrive, someone of the family brings you to the coffin and you can see the person through a window, or the coffin is open. This is very emotional for many people, they cry and shout and sometimes fall on the floor. After seeing the person, they escort you to the place where you can sit. This picture is of Joshua's burial, there were many big mango trees, so there is a lot of shade. When there are not so many trees, they hang big cloths, where people sit under in the shade. there is a lot of noise and a lot of introduction of relatives and special people.
Joshua R.I.P.
As I was getting ready to have breakfast and to leave to Amecet, we are going to the burial of Emma, I got a phone call from Simon. Josh died yesterday evening.......... Josh is also one of the boys we had living with us in Amecet in 2003. After living with us for a while, we re-settled him back with his relatives, his grandmother and his uncles. He died in the same hospital, here in Soroti....
Emmanuel R.I.P.
It is not easy to be a teenager and being HIV+. There is a lot of sensitization in Uganda about HIV, but there is still such a stigma. We get stories from the children about living with an uncle or auntie (often their parents have already died of AIDS),. They have stories that they only can eat from a special plate or are not allowed to play with their cousins or other children. We try to counsel the relatives, but they still suffer. This picture of Emmanuel (Emma) is taken during one of our Amun weeks, where they meet their pals and we talk a lot about stigma and how to react on it. But it is hard when you are a teenager, you start dating, you don't want your friends to know that you take ARV's and that you are HIV+, out of fear for rejection.
Simon Peter went HOME....
Yesterday I wrote about the new twins we had in Amecet and how the little boy, Simon Peter, was fighting for his life. Sadly I have to tell that he lost his fight... In the evening at around 9.30 his saturation (oxygen level in the blood), didn't come up anymore and his little heart stopped beating... The whole day, yesterday, we struggled, every time his saturation went down, but came back up, the doctor came several times to see him, he was on oxygen and several IV medications and IV fluids. But God decided to take him HOME, he is now with his mother.
Twins go and twins come.....
Last week twins went home, James and Samuel went back to their village. Around 6 weeks ago they were brought to Amecet, not because they were sick, or because their mother had died or because they were malnourished, they were brought to Amecet because their family feared for their safety.... Their mother has a mental problem and can be very aggressive at times. In the past she had two times twins before, they all died. The family was afraid that James and Samuel were not safe..... So they came to Amecet and in the meantime the family had clan meetings and our social workers went to talk with the grandfather. There was an auntie who was ready and willing to take the twins in her home and to raise them as her own. The mother didn't come there so the children would be safe. And last week, Simon brought them to the auntie and they were received very well. We pray that they will be united good in the new family and we pray that the mother will come to her senses...
Lot of things happened......
Lots of things are happening, in Amecet, our days are not boring at all!! Some children went home, the picture above is Nalibe, he was brought by the Probation office (children protect unit) from another district. His mother has passed away and he was so vulnerable. His father came to pick him and was very happy to see him so healthy and smiling.
Please pray for little James......
James was brought to Amecet after his mother passed away. During the pregnancy the mother had been sickly and the delivery was too early. Around 6 weeks early. The baby was born, but then suddenly the mother started to bleed and died..... James was very small, weighing only 1,6 kg, he was at risk, so the family brought James to Amecet. That was one week ago. We laid James in the medical room, with the windows and door closed it is a warm room. We took him to the doctor next door and James was put on IV medicines and we started to feed him by NG tube. There is a place in another district, where we can get special pre mature formula. We order it and they bring it to our home. We use that also for James. It looked to go well, but two days ago he started to have a temperature. For premature baby's it is difficult to maintain their temperature, so we check it every two hours and if it is higher we take away a blanket, if it is low, we ad a blanket. Normally that is enough. But with James not, he started to vomit a bit. We took him back to the doctor, and his medicines were changed, the milk intake a bit lowered and we observed... Two nights ago, his stomach started to grow and was a bit hard. When I came in the morning early (after some phone calls in the night), I took him back to the clinic next door. James had many prickholes from needles, I think even in the hospital, where he was born,, they tried to get a vein to give him IV medication. The cannula he got the previous day was blocked again... his veins are so tiny and now we had to stop the oral feeding and only give him IV fluids, so we had to get a new cannula.
3 sets of twins......
At the moment, we have 3 sets of twins in Amecet. .On the picture above you can see our last set of twins, Moses and Tom. They are 1 week old. They were born with a caesarean operation, everything went well, the mother was discharged and at home she started to bleed. They rushed back to the hospital, but it was too late, she died. The two little boys are brought to Amecet for 2 or 3 months. During that time the family can organize themselves and then they will take over the care for them.
Amecet got two little brothers today...
This is Samuel, he is 13 months old and very malnourished, we picked him and his 3 months little brother Daniel today. But let me start at the beginning: Yesterday, we got a phone call from a nurse, who works in a village Mission hospital in a neighbouring District. There was there a young mother with two baby's , only 10 months apart, who were malnourished. The mother has a mental problem and the baby's are crying from hunger and mostly laying naked on the floor.
Charles is going to his (new) forever family...
A happy day today in Amecet!!! Charles was picked up by his new family, who are so excited to have him! We are so excited that Charles has now a family, who will love him and care for him!
Goat Blessings.....
Today the Amecet staff received a Goat blessing! One of the missionaries in Soroti is a veterinarian doctor and he wanted to encourage and bless the Amecet staff with the precious gift of a goat!! They told us that God knows about our struggles and how difficult it was (and is) to be in, for the lockdown, that this was a reminder that He knows it all and that He wants to encourage us!!
Amecet in Covid times...
As in many places in the world, Covid 19 seems to be on its return, in Africa, and in Uganda are we now in the second wave. This wave is worse than the first one.... In many boarding schools were outbreaks and two weeks ago, the President closed all the schools again and a stream of people tried to get to heir homes, up country. The president also locked up all the districts, so nobody could travel outside their district, public transport was stopped. In two days, all the schools in Kampala tried to get transport home, it was chaos, people slept on the bus stations, trying to get a seat. The busses were only allowed to fill up half, and the bus fares doubled...
To read our old blog you can click here