I live in Uganda for more than 20 years, I have seen quite a lot, but sometimes I am still shocked and I don't understand what is going on... I wrote before that it was so quiet in Amecet, and it was, but now.... one baby after the other is coming and the stories, they make you cry...
Then yesterday, at 6 in the evening, baby Christine was brought by her family. Christine is 2 days old and her weight is 2.3 kg. The mother has a mental illness and her family doesn't know who is the father of the baby. The mother is only 18 years old, but moves around a lot. She didn't want to breastfeed the baby wanted to throw her in the pit latrine. The family feared for the life of the baby. So the baby is in Amecet, where she is safe and where she will be fed, the family has time to think what to do now.
Christine is a beautiful little baby girl, she drinks well and she looks good. We did take her to the HIV clinic, because the family of the mother doesn't know the HIV status of the mother...
The little baby on this picture is Susan, she looks like a new born baby, but when you look better you see she is not a new born baby.. Her weight is 1.7 kg. If you look into her eyes, you see pain, I don't know how else to write it. This baby is 2,5 months old!! The father brought her, the mother passed away 2 weeks ago, the mother had suffered from diabetics and sickle cell disease. How can this baby look like this?? I asked the father, but he couldn't tell me much, he told me that the attention had gone to the mother, I asked him how the baby was fed, he said that the mother had breastfed her, but he couldn't tell me how often. The baby was born small, he said. I asked if the baby was premature, but no, he said the baby was full term, but just small........
I don't understand that a baby looks like this when she is fed and is 10 weeks old. I don't understand, I think they forgot the baby a bit, but that is me..
Susan was brought to the doctor and had to go on Iv fluids, she was very dehydrated, she didn't want to drink, so we fed her milk through a tube. Today, she pulled it out and she drinks much better, she is alert and wants to drink. Susan is a fighter!!!!
Last week there was a drama in the maternity ward in the hospital. While the mother was bathing, someone took her baby and walked out..... The Police is looking for the lady, but didn't found her yet.
This morning, we got a phone call from the Police station, they needed help with a baby. When we came there we heard the story, there was a lady in another district who was giving water to her baby and the people had heard the story of the stolen baby on the radio, so they thought, this is the one, they contacted the Police, who arrested the lady and brought her and the baby to the station in Soroti. The mother of the stolen baby was called and she said, yes this is my baby. But the uncle, the Pastor and the nurse who had helped the other women, also came to the station and they said, no this is the real mother of this baby.... There was a lot of talking and they asked us to take the baby, meanwhile they were sorting out who was the right mother. DNA is probably the only way..
We called the baby Miriam, we took her as well to the HIV clinic, because both ladies didn't know their status. If you ask me, the lady who was with the baby is the mother, this lady has also a mental illness, she couldn't answer well, but the people who were with her, had helped with her delivery... My heart goes out to the other lady, who is still longing for her stolen baby....
The authorities will sort this out, the Police and the Probation Officer are involved, our job is the baby, she has some skin problems, but she is drinking well, her weight is also 2.3 kg. and she is around two weeks old.
We just got two phone calls, two new baby's are on their way. They are 1 and 2 days old, both baby's lost their mother. I don't have more details yet. We wait for them and we made their beds........
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Oo Els wat een hulp mogen jullie bieden aan deze kleine baby's. Zoveel mensenhanden zijn er nodig voor goede zorg. Heel veel sterkte samen. Denk veel aan jullie
Amazing work you are doing Els, take heart.
Els, and Amecet staff I admire your endurance! All those years that you doing this. Keep praying for you all.