Ferris Bueller was spot on. It’s been three weeks since I’ve last written to you – so much has happened I haven’t had the time to tell you all about it, nor have we really given ourselves time to reflect on just how much we have achieved in the past three months.
I was in the UK for six weeks and when I came back to Kampala, the home had doubled in capacity from five to 10 children. Take a look at the video and see how the kids are getting on.
I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of our babies’ home. All the children in our care are happy and loved – none of them reach out to get some much-needed attention (apart from the toddler in the video, who lunges and literally embraces you with love!) because they all have relatives or our lovely staff to care for them.
When I left for the UK, we had just signed the lease for our mother and baby crisis centre ‘Malaika House’. Now, thanks to Dorthe, Shida, Janet, Harriet, Steve, Rachel, Izy, Emily, Katie and Kristen, our house has been painted and decorated and we have welcomed our first four mother and babies.
Our very own Ugandan Grand Design Team
Carol has settled in brilliantly and already signed up to a childcare course at the YMCA. Take a look at getting the home ready!
In just two weeks, we are already half full with women and babies. Most of our referrals come from Mulago Hospital. There is a ward called Mwanamugimu Ward (meaning ‘healthy child’). The children come here in dreadful states of malnutrition and tragically many are bought too late. The children who are bought back to life after months of intensive feeding are discharged, but – sadly – they often return a few months later in the same state because the family situation remains unchanged. Now, though, we are hoping to be able to step in, enabling them to come to Malaika House with their babies. Over a period of eight months, we will work with them, giving them vocational skills and arming them with knowledge to help them be great mums. The plan then is that they leave in a position to be able to provide for their children instead of helplessly watching them slowly die. I am so proud of our service and the women living in our home are a family who support each other. I want to thank Dorthe Bucknell, our lovely VSO volunteer and her brilliant team – Shida, Janet, Steve and Harriet for making this project a reality.
Finally our family placement service is up and running, thanks to volunteer social worker Mary Blackwell who is doing an incredible job out here. We believe the best place for our children is in a family, so from day one we plan their exit so they spend the least amount of time in our care. Last weekend was our best day yet when we said goodbye to our second baby who went to a wonderful Ugandan family. Desire and George, his new parents, are also working with us to promote adoption in Uganda and we are working with all the big radio stations, TV stations and national newspapers to launch a huge campaign to encourage Ugandan families to adopt. We want to thank the Child’s I Klimb team – Kevin O’Brien, Liam Stewart and Ian Warren – who produced our first video, which we will be showing you soon.
Proud new parents
Writing this blog has allowed me to stop and look back on what we’ve achieved. I am so proud of our charity, our supporters and the volunteers who work tirelessly around the clock to give our children and their parents love and support.
We couldn’t do this without you and if you want to help us on our mission please:
Give Love: Join our Facebook and Twitter groups and send us comments or ask us questions
Give Time: Sign up to our abseil, which is happening this weekend! We still have 10 of our 34 places to fill on our awesome 450ft abseil. If you can raise £200 in the next 48 hours and fancy taking on the challenge with GMTV’s Emma Crosby, then please email abseil@childsifoundation.org
Give Money: With 10 children in our care we really need regular donations to help us with our running costs to pay for essentials like formula, nappies and 24-hour care and medical provision. If you would like to ‘Sponsor a Cot’ from £10 a month please visit our website http://www.childsifoundation.org/give/sponsor-a-cot/
Your regular donation is not only saving lives but creating a future. Thank you so much x
