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.

I took the baby to the doctor, she must be around one week old. Her cord was infected, her eyes were infected, and she has malaria. So we started medication and feeding of course.  She is drinking very well and she is a beautiful baby!!! 

The police lady told me that she spoke on the local radio last week and that she mentioned that mothers should never throw their baby in the pit latrine or strangle their baby, but if there is no other way, bring your baby to a safe place where she will be found. like the hospital... so I hope we will not get more baby's in the coming weeks......

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. 

And all that time Proscovia had not been fed, only some water with glucose........ We heard that her birth weight was 2.6 kg. At arrival in Amecet, her weight was 1.9 kg. She was small, weak and a bit swollen (as you can see at the eyes and the hand). Both parents were HIV+, so Proscovia was started at the medicins which might keep her from being HIV+.

Today it is Christmas eve, and the reason that I call her our Christmas baby is that she didn't do so well today and after we went back to the doctor with her, she was started on IV medication, IV fluids and an NG tube to help her getting enough milk. Proscovia doesn't know how to suck, she never was fed properly, so it is hard to get the right amount of milk in her. We do start with the bottle, she had to get used to sucking, but we do the extra feeding with the NG tube. Frequently, because the doctor said she is malnourished, lack of protein, that might also be the cause of the swelling.  She is our special need baby during this Christmas time...

Pls. pray for her, that she will pick up and that her little body can handle the feedings which she needs so badly.....

Merry Christmas to you all!!

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..

Sarah was the first child, many would follow her, today 1089 children have lived in Amecet. Many went back to their relatives, quite a number went to live in foster families and were adopted. And for a number of children, Amecet was a doorway to Heaven, they are now with their Heavenly Father...... 

Today we could bring 4 children back to their families!!! Left is Samuel, he was not so happy,because normally it was his nap time, he didn't understand what was going on. Then we get the three brothers: Emmanuel, Dennis and Edmond. 

Today was again a day with a miracle... we brought Messach back to his mother in the village!!!

This is James, he is a miracle baby!!! On this picture, he is 3 months old and we are rejoicing, because he is going back to his family!! He is a very cute baby, smiles a lot and everybody loves him.... But if you have time to read our blog of 26 th of August, you would not believe that this is the same baby!!

This picture above, brings good news!!!!! It is a test result of a HIV test of one of our children. We still get children who are at risk, their parents are HIV+ and we don't know their status. Every child which come to Amecet and we know that the parents are HIV+, needs too be tested for HIV. Also children who are found or who were abandoned, need to be tested, because we don't know the HIV status of the parents. Every time there is that tension, when I go for the results. I know what it will mean to the child if the result is positive...  The child will be started on triple HIV treatment and that is for life!!!! Some children come from a difficult background en we are not sure if the parents manage to give the child every day their ARV medication. When the child was abandoned, and we can't find the relatives of the child, it will be very difficult to find a foster family who wants to adopt the child..... So it is a tense moment when I get the results from the nurse......

Yesterday I went for two results and I also took two baby's to get the test done. One baby, her parents were both HIV+, the mother had died after the delivery, but she had always faithfully swallowed her ARV's. The second child, about him we got the information, that his father was HIV positive, but he was killed some months ago and the mother was HIV negative. So the baby should be negative too. But there was so much confusion among the relatives, we don't know if this information was right, the baby is not really doing very well, so we felt we should test him to know the truth. In about one month we will know the truth!!

But........ now the good news comes.....

This is the same baby as on our last blog: Messach!! We did shave his hair, but there is another big change........... Messach knows now how to smile!!! This is so important that children smile, it shows that they feel content, happy and safe. I think we can't let a child go back home when the child doesn't smile! It is good to work on the malnutrition, the medical problems, but we also need to think about the psychological problems. We have had children who were very rigid and always  you felt their tension when you carry them, we need to find a way that we can help the child to unwind and to relax and to feel happiness.....

I realize that there are several children, where I asked prayers for, who are doing now very well, so I think it is also good to share our thanksgiving with you and one of them is Messach. He weighed 1 kg. when he came to Amecet and now he is 3 kg. On this picture he cries, he has quite a temper, you can hear his cries from far, very high pitch. And he is not smiling much... But he is such a cute little man, you can read his story in the blog of  23/7, we have tested him and he is HIV-. We have to go back to the hospital with him at the end of the month, after that he will go back to his mother!!

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.

There are also a lot of speeches and some people use this time to have political speeches. I was also asked to say something on both burials. I used the opportunity to talk about HIV/AIDS, that people should be more open and take their medicines every day, I talked to the youth that they should be careful and really if Emmanuel and Joshua had taken their medicines daily these burials would probably not be there. I also tried to ask people not to be hostile to HIV+ people, but to encourage them and be kind to them.

These introductions  speeches go on for hours, then the church takes over with a small service, singing, praying and preaching and then they carry the coffin to the grave that they were digging behind the hut. A small prayer and a song and the coffin is lowered in the grave. Everybody goes back to sit and a meal is served. A meal is cooked for hundreds of people. then some men work at the grave to close it.

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....

This is too much, it is a bit the same story as Emma, not taking the ARV's right and not accepting his HIV+ status. It is so painful when you see that the youth is not seeing that they are as smart as others, that they have talents and opportunities, that HIV does not mean that they are worthless. We tried hard to let them know that they are so valuable, that they can dream about their future, but now two great guys, just dying a day after each other...

I know that they suffer because of stigma, but they all got opportunities, if they would just believe in themselves.....

Simon went to the hospital to help with a coffin and cement for the grave. We are going to lay Emma to rest today and tomorrow we are going to lay Josh to rest........

Pls. pray for the youth

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. 

Emma was not a baby, when he came into Amecet. We were asked by his sister, if we could help. He was sick and malnourished. We took him to the doctor, he was tested and found HIV+, this was not a surprise, because his parents died of AIDS. He was started on ARV medication. This is not a cure, but is slows down the growth of the virus. It is really working well if you take the medication twice a day. It is almost making the virus to sleep.... He did well and after some months, we brought him back to his sister, where he was welcome.....

Emma struggled a lot. He felt it is not cool to take those ARV's every day.... He hung out with some wrong friends and dropped out of school. Several times the sister called to Amecet asking for help and then one of our social workers, Simon or Elias, went to talk with Emma and with his sister, trying to mediate. He did came to our Amun weeks and had a lot of fun there, Emma was a nice guy, he just struggled with life. We heard that he was sick, he was admitted in the health centre in his area. We helped with medication, he got blood transfusion, but still he didn't pick up. They transferred him to the hospital in Soroti, we heard that he had meningitis, we went to see him. He was very sick, and last night he passed away..... He can rest now..... no more ARV's and no more medicines.. He will be missed......  Tomorrow we will go to hi village and Emma will be laid to rest..... He was only 21 years old.

It is hard to see the older children struggle with their status of being HIV+, many want to stop taking the ARV's, especially when they go to boarding school. They do not want their friends to know that they are HIV+. When they stop taking those medicines, they get sick and I have seen some of them die, because the virus started to multiply.... We can talk and talk, but when they don't accept their status, things will go very difficult. Pls. pray for the teenagers and even the young adults as they built up their life and have to find a way to live with their HIV status.

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.

We got a small coffin this morning and we are going to bring him back to his relatives in the village. They buried his mother yesterday and today they will bury her little son next to her.

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...

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.

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. 

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.

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.

This morning, Simon and I went there, to see if and how we could help. Our car has a special permit, because it is still lockdown in Uganda and you can not travel from one District to another District. There are no cars on the road and there are Police checkpoints. But they know the Amecet cars and they just waved to us when we drove by.

When we came to the hospital ( around 1 hour drive), we talked with the nurse and the mother, the grandfather was also there and we saw the children.

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!

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!!

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...

The new infection rate is high and many people are dying. The prices in the private hospitals are outrageous and the normal hospitals and health centres are running out of oxygen. So last week the lockdown was tightened, no bodaboda's no private vehicles and no churches and any social gathering allowed. Bodaboda's are bicycle or motor taxi's who will bring you anywhere you want, so only walking is left and the bicycle, if you have one.. There is a curfew from 7 pm till 5.30 am. And you better be of the street, because the police and the army are on patrol, if they get you, they can be very violent...

In the blog of April 16, I wrote about Ivan, a small malnourished boy. He was abandoned by his mother and he was HIV+. Last week we could bring him back to the village, to his father.... he is strong, smiling, healthy and almost walking!!! It is sometimes hard to let children go, you start to love  them, but they belong with their family and we pray and hope he will do well there. ( we keep in touch with them)... 

In our blog of April 16, I wrote about the premature twin babies we got in Amecet. The girl's weight was 950 gram and her twin brother's was 1200 gram. Honestly, I was scared to loose them and together with the team, we set up a plan to care for them... They were in a separate room, got fed every 2 hours, taken their temperature and we did that for all those weeks!! God had His hand on those little one's, they started to grow and we never had major problems..... I had told the team, when they are both over the 2 kg., we will celebrate!!

Last week, three small babies were brought to Amecet, you can see them on the picture. Left is Emmanuel, he was the first, He was brought on 5th of May, in the morning! His uncle came with a neighbour, the father was not able to travel.... Emmanuel was born the day before, his mother gave birth via a Caesarean operation, Emmanuel was breech... The mother died after the operation..... Emmanuel was her 10th baby!!

In the middle is Francis, he was brought by his clan chairman and a friend on the same day, in the afternoon. He was also born via a Caesarean operation, but 2 weeks ago. After the operation they went home, but the mother was not fine, she died yesterday from a long embolism(?). Francis was her 11th baby.....

The baby at the right is Nalibe, his parents are from the Karamojong tribe in the North. He was brought by his father and a friend. Nalibe was born on 22/4/21, also 2 weeks ago and also via a Caesarean operation. His mother started to bleed seriously, 2 weeks after the operation and she passed away. Nalibe was her first baby. 

Three small boys lost their mother, but there are 19 other children who also lost their mother!!! There is still so much to be done in the healthcare in Uganda, too many mothers die after giving birth, too many children loose their mother to give them love and care.

We do our best for those three boys, they drink and they gained a bit, but we can't help all those other children and we couldn't help the mothers....  Pray for the healthcare in Uganda, for the antenatal care and for those who help with the birth process....

PS.  Just some good news to end this blog: our two mini babies, the twins, have gained again!!! Deborah is over the 1.5 kg and William is going towards the 1.9 kg!!! Is that not great. you can read more about them in the two previous blogs...

Last Sunday evening, baby Hannah went to be with Jesus....... It was a big, big shock to all of us, because Hannah was doing so well. this was the baby who was found in the bush, still connected with the placenta. I wrote about her in the blog of March 9. We all got to love this little girl and there was a family, who was willing to foster and adopt her... Many questions and tears among the staff...... It was more than a year ago that we lost a baby. Hannah was not wanted by her biological mother, but she experienced so much love from the staff while she was in Amecet, and now she is in the loving arms of Jesus!!!!

This is Deborah (at the back) and her twin brother William (front). Last week Thursday, we got a call from the hospital in neighbouring district, that a mother has passed away, leaving 2 baby's behind...... The mother was only 7 months pregnant, but she had developed pre -eclampsia and the Doctors had preformed a Caesarian operation, trying to save the mother and the 2 baby's.  Unfortunately, the mother passed away. The family asked us if we could take the two mini baby's to Amecet. Honestly, when I saw them, I had to swallow, they were so small..... The little girl's weight was 950 gram and the boy weighed 1200 gram. We have had small baby's under 1 kg. in Amecet, but they didn't make it. What to do??? They would for sure die at home, those baby's need a lot of care, warmth, hygiene and feeding..... often they develop complications, because they were not ready to be born.... Earlier that morning I had read in a devotion that we get sometimes chances offered, it is to us what we do with them...... We don't have to do it alone..... So we took them in the car, back to Amecet. We took them directly to the doctor and we had to give them several days IV medication. We gave them both a NG tube and we set up a feeding schedule, with taking temperature, writing down urine and stool etc. At first we fed them only 5 ml. every 2 hours. They couldn't handle more... William didn't poop, so we prayed for poop and he did after 4 days. Now they are both regular with urine and poop.  They are now 8 days with us and they have gained!!!!!! Deborah was 950 gram, now she is 1105 gram and William was 1200 gram and today he is 1370 gram.  We are very happy with this, but we realize that they are not yet  out of the danger zone. They are laying in a separate room, which we keep as warm as possible. we have assigned one staff to attend to them and we pray that they will pull through, please join us in praying for those two precious children.....

This morning a newborn baby was found in the bush. It was in a part of Soroti, not far from  Amecet . The baby was naked, still connected with the placenta and was put in a paper cement bag. people found the baby around 10 am and they called the Police, some women tied and cut the cord and the baby was brought to Amecet. It was a beautiful, newborn baby girl. She was a bit cold, we took her directly to the doctor  and her cord was re-tied and re-cut. She was given a canulla and is started on I.V. medication. Because of being in such a dirty place and we don't know how and where she was born, she is very vulnerable to sepsis. Her weight is 2.1 kg, she doesn't drink very good, but we give her some time. She is fed now every two hours and we keep her nice and warm. It makes me so sad, seeing this lovely little girl, and knowing that she was thrown away in an old cement bag. Nobody should be coming in this world and be treating like this. I pray that God will protect this little girl, we gave her the name Hannah, which means "favour" or "grace". 

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!!! 

She was cold, and very skinny, we took the baby directly to the clinic next door and the baby was started on I.V.Medication and we worked very hard in warming her up.

We laid her in our incubator and fed her every two hours a small amount of formula milk.

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....

It has not been an easy time for the staff during the Covid 19. When we went into the the tight Lockdown, we had to ask the staff who lived outside Amecet, to stay home. It was too risky to have the staff coming every morning and going home every evening. We offered them to come and live inside, but not everybody could do that. The staff who stayed, was at first not able to go home and to leave the Amecet premises. later we allowed them to go out on their free day. We also asked the outliving staff if they still wanted to come back to work and live inside, several staff members came back and lived in our staff house and in Amun house. It was not easy, and we even had to ask 2 staff members to leave, because we caught them stealing. This are difficult times, we understand that families are in need, but we can't allow this (it was after several warnings). We appreciate the staff so much, without them, we could not continue to minister to these little ones. 

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.

Through the years we have had 1040 children come through Amecet, we did lost a number of children, but most of them are doing well and are happy. They all appear on our wall of fame, (on the picture above). This year we had no children dying!!!! And we are so thankful for that. It has not happened before. We do get less children with Aids, the mother to child infection has gone down so much. We also didn't get older children who are HIV+ and stopped taking their ARV medication at home. I am not sure why, but I am thankful and happy, together with the staff that we didn't have to go through the pain of loosing a child!!

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. 

When I started Amecet, I still continued with this Grandma project, but when I got help from Simon and Elias (our  social workers), we changed it in more practical help. We gave seeds, cassava cuttings and groundnuts to plant in their gardens and the crops would help the family to eat. When we got special gifts, we gave one time a goat, another year we could give a cow, we gave orange trees and we even one year a bull with a plough. It was such a good way to support those brave women and it helped the families a lot! We target the HIV+ children who had been with us in Amecet and were now cared for by their grandma's, and some very needy families.

here some pictures from the last years..... 

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!!

The Amecet farm is part of the Amecet Ministry. It is set up to generate income for the children's ministry. It is a very valid part of Amecet. We hope that it brings more fruits in the future, like vegetables, fruits, milk and funds. In this blog I want to show you what we have in place right now, with pictures and simple explanation ( because I am a simple city girl :)!).

This is the picture of the blog of July 8th. A call from the hospital, it was about this baby Elijah. Elijah was born with a clubfoot and a rotating knee, then he had problems with the fingers on both hands and an eye problem. We are 5  weeks further and Elijah has kept us busy.... The mother died in the hospital on July 8th and the family could not commit themselves to bring the baby once, sometimes twice a week to the hospital. That is where Amecet came in...

A couple of months ago, the police brought Lucy to Amecet. A little girl of 4, maybe 5 years old. She was stolen and nobody knew where is came from. The Police is looking for the woman she was with, but up till today there are no clues where Lucy came from. We have put adverts in the National newspaper and she has been even on National TV. The Police have been checking the reports of missing children also from other parts of the country, all in vain.

Today the police arrived at Amecet with this baby.... It is a little baby girl with the weight of 1.2 kg........ The baby was stolen, but it is unknown from where. Concerned people brought the baby with the lady, who claimed to be the mother, to the police. They told the police that they never saw the lady pregnant, the lady had no breastfeeding and after being examined by a doctor it was confirmed that the lady could not have given birth 3 days ago, as she said... The police brought the baby to Amecet and will investigate where the baby comes from. When I saw the little girl, I felt so sad and also a kind of angry, who could take a little baby like this ?? It is a pre-mature baby, and she is very weak, she was not fed for hours...... I took her directly to the doctor (our neighbours) and she was diagnosed with a septic cord and low temperature. She got a cannula and is put on antibiotics via the I.V. we laid her in our incubator, so she is more protected and also more warm. When I fed her, she drank 30 ml!! She was so hungry, she cries, that is also a good sign. 

Because of Covid 19, we do not go so often to the villages. But today we went, my daughters, Mary and Helen went with us,  because one of the children we went to see was Daniel!!!!  Around 6 weeks ago, Simon and I brought him back to his grandmother, you can read that in the blog of May 29.

Yesterday, Simon got a call from the hospital. A doctor called that there was a baby of 3 weeks, whose mother had died that morning. The family could not take care of the baby, the mother was only 18 years old and there was no father in the picture.... So I drove to the hospital, I went to maternity ward, the doctor was not there, they knew about that baby, so I called the doctor and he told me he was in orthopaedic ward and the baby was also there. I felt that is a bit strange, but I went to that ward and I saw the baby, with two legs in a cast.. Now I understood why the baby was in this ward, there was something wrong with both legs... they had not said that over the phone.. I heard the story, the baby was born 3 weeks ago in the hospital by caesarean. The mother got a sepsis, she stayed all those 3 weeks in the hospital (with the baby) and at the end she needed a blood transfusion, there was no blood available and in the morning at 6.30 am she died... The baby was called Elijah and had a clubfoot at one leg and a rotating knee at the other leg. they had put  a cast on both legs and the family was told to come every Tuesday to the Orthopaedic ward for review and changing of the cast and physiotherapy, every Thursday they also had to come for physiotherapy. The family lived in the village, they had left already with the body of the mother, there was still an uncle and some neighbours around. The doctor was afraid that they would not be in position to come twice a week, that is why he had called us.  The family is willing to have the baby, but they can't make it twice a week from the village to Soroti... So we filled the papers and I took Elijah to Amecet. We have a commitment to Elijah by taking him to the hospital twice a week. Elijah drinks well, but he had a fever and when we took him to the clinic next to Amecet, he was put on IV medication.

We are a bit careful with taking children in, during this Covid 19 time, when  two weeks ago, a young mother came with this baby at our gate, we saw that the baby was in need of help. The mother had no breastfeeding and this baby was already 5 weeks old. But the mother really loved her baby, so we gave milk money and let her come back in one week. One week later she was there again, the baby had gained a little bit, but looked miserable. We talked with the mother and offered her to take the baby in Amecet for two months. She was very grateful, she felt still weak, after the delivery. Baby Samuel was now 6 weeks old and his weight was 2.1 kg. At birth he weighed 3.6 kg. We feed him every two hours and today his weight is 2.7 kg. His mother came to see him, she was so happy, she said she could see that he was already doing better. Samuel was put on antibiotics and we are waiting for blood transfusion. His HB was low, but up till today, there was no blood for transfusion. We hope and pray that Samuel  will start drinking good and gaining and getting stronger so that he can go back to his mother!

I am so excited!!!!  For many years we have been able to place children (with the help of the Probation Office) into local foster families, but for the families to do the last step, was difficult. It cost money to make the adoption legal and how to do it??? There was an organization in the Netherlands, Metterdaad, who was willing to help these families to do this last legal step. The children will be safe and be a full member of the family and also the clan! We have been working on this project for more than a year, the Corona crisis postponed the hearing in court again. Then the Chief Magistrate, who was also in Lockdown in Soroti, offered to work on all of them and together with the Probation Officer and our two Social Workers, Simon and Elias, all the papers were gathered and finished! This week there is a group of some families every day and we will finish the 50 adoptions.

All the 50 children have now a family they belong to, they are wanted and loved, they go to school and they get new clothes at Christmas!! When I think back of all the stories of where they came from, there was one little boy of 4, he was just left behind in the bus station, another new born baby girl was left behind in the field, and was burned by the sun. There was a baby saved from the pit latrine. Another boy of 3 years was found at night, just sitting in the street. Three little boys living by themselves in the village, or the twins whose mother had a mental problem and she poked into the eye of one of them...….. I can go thru like this, stories which make you cry and wonder in what world we live... I am thankful that we, as Amecet, can make a little difference in some of those stories, give them a happy end..... Of course their life story is not yet ended, but they have hope on a better future!

Keep checking this blog, we will have a small ( according to corona rules) party when we give out the official papers to all the families.. I can't wait to see all those precious children again...…..