A matter of life and death (again)

Today we were mostly busy around the Global Care Children’s Centre in Soroti. The team are still bubbling with ideas to improve the lot of vulnerable children, and are prepared to sit down and toil over the planning process, so we had plenty of work to do.

After saying good bye, we went to visit another centre that works for children in Soroti. Amecet N’ainapakin (Shelter of Peace) is home to a team that basically saves babies. Today, for example, they took in three new little ones, two whose mothers had died in childbirth, and one whose mother had survived but was mentally incapable, the baby had been fed only on sugar water for three weeks and was in a very weak state. The babies’ room that we visited was quite full with tiny people in cots and we tried to help soothe some, feeling rather overwhelmed. The sight of a very weak malnourished infant in the nursing room was very sad; if she doesn’t take milk better soon, she might need tube feeding for a while.

Kind friends from home in Yorkshire had made a large number of quilts for the babies’ cots and we took great pleasure in delivering them, and seeing Els’s delight. The quilts will help keep them warm and comfortable whilst they receive nursing care. Babies are usually sent home after a few weeks and often the quilt is sent with them, this can be helpful especially when the family has few resources, and it may make it easier to cope when the child may not even be their own.

Els and the team also receive children taken from abusive situations by the police, and they visit children in the local prison and take in regular supplies to supplement their diet. They are supposed to be sent home at the age of two but this is not always achieved so they have helped secure nursery school places for those who must stay longer.

I recommend the Amecet blog at amecet-soroti.blogspot.ug to learn more about this brilliant place. I feel privileged to know it.

Looking back on the week, I feel we have achieved a lot but the biggest new thing might be still to come as we go back to Abeko to work with the new disability support group there. Watch this space tomorrow!