I like to share with you the story of Tom. In the morning van November 10, 2023, we got a phone call from the Police that a small baby was found in a garden. He was abandoned, nobody knew him and nobody saw anything.... We went to pick the baby, he seemed to be around one month old, his weight was 4.6 kg. and he looked like a healthy baby boy. he was brought to the doctor for check ups and his blood tests showed a septicemia, so he was started on medication.
On this picture, Tom is the baby at the left, next to him is Moses, a newborn baby, who was also found that same week, abandoned in a garden. They became "buddies"...
When we receive abandoned baby's in Amecet, we give them a Christian name. Normally we let the family choose the name, but when there is no family, we give the child a name, so we can be more personal with them. So Tom got his name and Moses also got his . Our social workers started their tracing for the relatives. They go to the area where the baby was found, talk with neighbours and the police, ask around and put posters on the places where many people can see them. As soon as they hang a poster with the little info we know, people come to see and they talk about it. We also bring radio messages to the local radio station. There are certain times that people tune in on the local radio station, because it is a time where announcements are made and when they can hear who died and when the burials are etc. We do find relatives on this way, but for Tom, and for Moses, nobody or no clue came out of these actions. After a while we get the green light from the Police and the Probation Officer, to look for a family who want to foster and adopt the abandoned baby or child. We feel it is not good for a child to be for a long time in a children's home.... Children belong in a family!!!
Tom is loved by the staff, he is a cute, friendly little boy. On this picture , he is around 8 months old and his weight is only 6 kg. He is not standing by himself, they are holding him. Moses is bigger and his weight is more, he is also more advanced in trying to crawl etc. Tom is more sickly and has often malaria, in spite of the mosquito net over his bed. In April 2024 he was even given blood transfusion.
In the meantime, we were searching for a good family for both Tom and Moses. And we found 2 family's for them!! But because Tom's health problems, we took him for check up to the pediatrician. There he got more tests done and it came out that Tom has Sickle Cell disease.. It is a sickness that is more seen in black people and it is genetic. The red blood cells are changed into sickles and it gives a lot of problems to the person. They can go into crisis and have a lot of pain. We were referred to a new centre which only focus on sickle cell disease. They have a programme for children of 1 year and older. They gave us a lot of advice and we can always call them for help. As soon as Tom is 1 year old, we will register him in that programme and they provide medication which has a lot of good results.
We had a serious talk with the family who wanted to foster/adopt Tom, they were coming to visit him regularly to "bond" with him. After the talk, the family decided that they could not continue with Tom, they found the burden too much for them.. We were all very sad, this little boy needs a family to belong to..... but it is a big commitment....
So we continue to have Tom in Amecet (Moses went last week to his new family) . We love this little boy and we pray for a family for Tom. Pls. join us in this prayer, for a forever family for Tom. We will continue to care for him, to love him and to treat him....
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