Forced removal of 2 boys

In our attempt to find the family members of the children that are currently placed at the baby home, we found Mutyaba's family and it turned out that his two older brothers have not been treated well.
Their father is temperamental and have not even managed to provide his family with food. Despite of this he had even denied his wife to work because this would be embarrassing.

Mutyaba's older brothers, Godfrey and Edison

In cooperation with the local childcare authorities, we decided, that Mutyaba's older brothers, Godfrey and Edison, should also be placed at the baby home. So today we could finally go out to rescue the two boys who have had enough misery in their young lives. They are about 7 and 9 years old, even though they look like a couple of boys of about 5 years. They now need love, a life of dignity, good nutrition and schooling. The boys have not yet had the opportunity to go to school, as the children have been kept at home so they could work. When we got there to pick up the kids, they were in the middle of making dinner which consisted of preparing a pumpkin for today's meal.

A local official, our social worker Brenda and the local childcare manager talks with the boys

The boys slept here - no blanket, and as you see it rains in

Godfred and Edison

The boys were preparing the day's food, which consisted of boiled pumpkin

Both boys need sponsorships (2 sponsorships of 170 Dkk per child)

Godfrey and Edison were driven out to the baby home, where they were greeted by their younger brother, who obviously could not remember them, but they remembered well that they once had a little brother.

Mutyaba meets his older brothers, but he could not really relate to them

Gavin drove to Rhema and Matale, where he delivered online gifts etc.

Students at Rhema run into the classroom, because it started to rain

New baby and Yasin on family visit

Today we were contacted by a nurse from the maternity ward at the local hospital, who had a newborn baby who lost his mother during labor. Baby Jacob was left with his five siblings, the oldest 19 years now faced with the responsibility for her younger siblings at 13, 10, 6 and 2 years. This amazing big sister has love and care for her siblings, but it's too overwhelming for her to have to take care of a newborn baby, so the agreement was that Jacob had to be placed at our baby home and the big sister will try to keep in touch with him.

Jacob three days old

Jacob and his older sister, who is now a mother to her younger siblings

The maternity ward at the hospital in Masaka

Isn't he cute?

Gavin drove to the school Cornerstone where Kathrine and Emeli were to give a first aid course to the older students.

Brenda and Melisa had Yasin along to Cornerstone so he could visit his family. Yasin did not get much out of the visit, but his mother and his older brother were very surprised to see that Yasin was doing so well. Yasins Mother continued to give thanks for all that has been done for her son. She was very happy and grateful. When the neighbors heard that Yasin had come over they did not believe their eyes when they saw him, they did not expect that he would survive. Yasin is definitely a true miracle.

Yasins mother gives him some jackfruit and really tried to establish a contact with him, but he could not remember his family ...

Melisa and Yasin

Yasin with his mother

Here is the family: Yasins big brother in the blue pants, Yasins little sister in the pink jersey with sleeves and Yasin on the arm of his mother (I do not think the girl in the string t-shirt is from the family, but I'm not quite sure!)

Gods Grace and Technical College

Moses drove to Gods Grace and some of the schools that are along that road. The mobile clinic had been preparing for an efficient trip to Gods Grace, so both Kezia and Beatrice was along and Emeli and Kathrine was also along to help them in particular entering health reports directly on their computer.

Some pictures from an effective day with the mobile clinic, which checks sponsor children's health

In his spare time, Moses is president for The Gideons in Masaka, distributing Bibles to schools, hotels, etc. Moses had taken Bibles with him for distribution on Gods Grace school today so the students and the teachers were very happy for that.

Moses handing out Bibles to a class at Gods Grace School

Ivan, the head teacher of Gods Grace is very grateful for the Bibles to the students

The fishing village

Along the way, on today's trip, they drove past a technical college where Nante (a girl we've taken care of from the baby home, since she is the older sister of Mercy, who we have helped since birth) were to start on vocational training. Nante have struggled with the academic subjects for a while, so now we have decided that she instead of regular schooling can try to go on this technical school where she will get an initial introduction to various subjects such as hairdressing , sewing, cooking, computer, etc. We hope that it will be a great success for Nante to be there.

The technical school offers classes in sewing...

Cooking...

Computer...

Nante and her grandmother

Quiet day with emergency lights!

Monday morning started with, as is tradition, a morning meeting for all UCC staff, where among other things we made a master plan for the week. Gavin drove out to some schools with online gifts and got various tasks done along the way.

Best friends

 

Lunch time

Sarah, who has lived in our baby home. She likes her new foster family and is doing well! The same goes for her older brother, Samuel, who attends boarding school at Hope Primary

The volunteers and the mobile clinic staff worked from the office where we are well underway with some modifications to the workflow with regard to the medical reporting. The system we are using now gives us a better overview, but it takes a little time to teach all employees the new workflows. But it is coming along and everyone is in good spirits. :-)
In the afternoon the teaching family Lawaetz and Ruth headed for Kampala and Entebbe. The plan was to visit the hairdresser before Ruth and Anna, their oldest daughter who is 13 years old, were going on a flight from Entebbe to Denmark. BUT we will never do that again! The journey to Kampala should take one hour ... it took three and a half hours and a lot of time the traffic stood completely still, so it was a very desperate drive that ended with panic overtaking disaster flashing lights, but we did check in a second before the time we had called in and agreed would be our very last chance to check in. Phew ... the plan in Denmark is that Anna will return to family, friends and volti-training and be looking forward to when the rest of the family comes in one month. Ruth will be with our boys at their boarding school for the Ascension Day holiday and be on Joan's Child Care Denmark booth at Ledreborg the first of June, and then head back to Uganda.

/RJ

Church and malnourished twins

The day started with service at The Family Church, where we in particular had a visit from a reggae-singer, who gave a few songs to the delight of the congregation.

Hope and Mama Rose. 

Once Hope has got up she is fast and loves to go for a walk

Ruth and Marvin while the crowd is beginning to show up for today's service

Today's worship team

It almost became a disco in the church today, people loved the fun rhythms

Children from the baby home enjoying today's music, so they danced around

Ruth preached

In the afternoon Ida and Ruth drove out in the bush in Kamuzinda with Ronald and Pontiano. Yesterday Ida met some grandparents in the Swedish soup kitchen, who took care of their grandchildren, four months old twins, which looked very malnourished. Which is why, we drove out to the family, so we could find out what we could do to help them. Luckily, we found the mother with the children and the grandparents, which was very positive. But the kids were so small that even the clothes for premature babies was to big. But even worse was that the smallest baby, weighing nearly 2.3 kg had some nasty wounds on his neck and was dehydrated. So after a little chat and an attempt to give the babies bottle we went to a doctor in the local area, who recommended that we drove them to the hospital, so the mother could be hospitalized with the kids. So we did, so now they are admitted to the Department of malnourished children where they will be followed closely.

The grandparents with one baby, Waswa

Ruth trying to get a few drops of food into Waswa, who only weighed 2.3 kg - he is 4.5 months old

Kato, who is the healthiest of the babies, but he is also malnourished. Weighing 2.9 kg

Ida with Waswa who loved to hold his head high up!

Waswa

Mama Nalonge as your name become when you are a mother of twins, with the boys having the classic twin names Waswa and Kato

We will do what we can to help this mother and her twins for the foreseeable future, the mother is young and obviously in need of support and encouragement. Write to us if you have the heart to help with a lump sum or perhaps a sponsorship (although we do not know how long we have contact with the children, but presumably until they are vigorous).