Well we have had another busy week at the Baby Home.

Haji is getting stronger and more energetic each day. He loves music time and plays the drum or maraccas to help create music (or what me and Chloe call 'noise'!) with a big grin on his face each day!

His Dad is continuing to visit regularly which is great.

The two girls from The Bethany Orphanage - Neema and Mwanaidi - have settled in really well. They are great with the babies are are having cooking lessons from our cook. I think they have made a great addition to the Forever Angels Family.

Neema and Mwanaidi

Unfortunately - Julia and Gwilym - our two latest volunteers left today. They enjoyed their time with us and in other orphanage projects around town - but did not find their 'niche'. They are going to travel within Tanzania and hope to find other volunteer work. We'd like to thank them for their friendship and work whilst they were with us and wish them well. Keep in touch guys....

While I am on the topic of volunteers - we have a lot of short term volunteers planning to come out over the next few months which is great.....but we would quite like a long term volunteer too. So if you love babies and are willing and able to commit to 12 months or more at Forever Angels - please e-mail me on trustees@foreverangels.org

We have started to use the generator for a couple of hours every evening as we still rarely have power, and with it being rainy season and so cloudy much of the time, the children are being bathed in the dark! Thank you to The Kitchen Tables Charity Trust for providing us with this.

My Mum and Dad (the UK Trustees) are coming out to Mwanza on Friday so we are really looking forwards to their visit. It will be wonderful to be able to show them the Baby Home and our children and staff after all their hard work in the UK fundraising to help us to make this dream become a reality.

Asha is going to get the best Christmas present ever - an adoptive family! Friends of ours in Mwanza have just been approved to adopt and will hopefully be able to take Asha home in the next few weeks. Although we will be very sad to see her go - we are so pleased that she will get a Mummy and Daddy - and a wonderful one at that!

And last but not least for today - I took some cute photos today for the children's Life Books - here are a couple...

Well the days seem to have passed me by again and I haven't written my diary!
Ooops!

All is well at the Baby Home.

I am told that Bruno is now very settled at Starehe and has made lots of friends and even started Kindergarten this week. I am going to go to visit him on Thursday.

Haji is looking very well - the best we have known him in fact. He has a lot more energy and is able to sit up and play for quite long periods of time now. He is eating well and gaining weight so we are very happy.

Rama has really come out of himself and is an adorable little boy! He loves singing and dancing and has got the best dance moves ever! He has an adorable smile and is loved by everyone.

Ben and Gwilym have been busy fixing the Baby Home windows so they are now hopefully all mosquito proof. I am going to do a huge spray of insecticide next time the children are all out playing to be sure!

It is rainy season here now so some days we have a LOT of rain which doesn't make Sarah, Yunisi and Yohana happy as they have to stay indoors!

Pascal and Asha are both very content, happy babies who are gaining weight and reaching their milestones.

All in all - everyone is fit and healthy!

Well - almost all......Jonathon (our night watchman) was run over by a car whilst on his bicycle at the weekend though - but thankfully he is fine and just hurt his foot. I think he had a lucky escape.

Anyhow - that is all for now.....watch this space.....

Haji came home with us today and everyone at the Baby Home was thrilled to see him. He was very tired and slept most of the afternoon - but he ate well this evening and gave lots of his famous smiles.

He still needs to go back to hospital every day for a week for IV antibiotics and he is joining a Malnourishment Clinic tomorrow at the hospital too.

Thank you to everyone for your love and prayers for him - this time it seems to have worked.....

Thank you to everyone who reads this - I thought it would just be my Mum - but it seems not!

Today, we said 'Goodbye' to Bruno. When he came to Forever Angels - we were told he was 3 years old and that it would be temporary until his family came to find him.
As we got to know him - we discovered that he wasn't 3 at all - but probably more like 6 or 7 years old.

He is a very intelligent little boy who has been to school in the past. His family have not tried to find him though and so we now believe he will be in an instituation long term. For this reason - we thought it would be better to transfer him to another orphanage now - rather than in a couple of years when he is settled at Forever Angels .

He has been transferred to Starehe Children's Home and there he will have friends of his own age and be able to go to school.

We wish Bruno all the best in the future and will continue to visit him at his new home. He was certainly a lively little boy and will be well missed at Forever Angels.

Haji is still in hospital and despite being on 4 very strong antibiotics - he is still spiking a fever. Today the Doctors have added one more antibiotic in the hope of bringing his temperature down and getting rid of his infections and I am hoping I can bring him home tomorrow.

Despite still being very unwell - Haji is eating briliantly and has gained weight remarkably well considering his illness. When he came to us 3 weeks ago - he weighed 5 kg - this morning, he weighed 6kg - so we are very happy.

We managed to find his father and he has been to the hospital today to visit Haji although he is sick himself and doesn't really understand how serious Haji's condition is. Nonetheless - we are pleased that he is coming to visit his son and haji welcomed him with his wonderful gummy smile we have all come to adore!

I'd like to mention all my staff here too - they really are WONDERFUL! They have all rallied around and worked extra shifts on their days off so that we can care for Haji 24 hours a day at the hospital and many have also been to visit him in their own time. They are all such caring people and they genuinely love our Forever Angels children. I think we are very lucky to have found such special people to work with us.

We have now been joined by Neema and Mwanaidi from the Bethany Orphanage. They are teenage girls who have had no schooling who we have agreed to take on as 'Trainees' at the Baby Home. They are living in the Volunteer house and will work at the Baby Home - gaining certificates in First Aid, Child Development, Health and Safety, Food and Nutrition etc.

Being orphans themselves, and with no formal education, these girls had a limited future.....but we hope that after working at the Baby Home for 6 months to a year - they will have gained sufficient experience and confidence that we can help them to find work elsewere in Mwanza.
Already they have proved to be hardworking, polite and caring girls who the children love! We welcome them both.

Thats all for now I think - Tomorrow we are taking Mia, Asha, Pascal, Sarah and Rama for their DPT and Polio jabs and for a 'weigh in' at the local clinic.....and fingers crossed I can finally bring Haji home......

This is actually Ben writing this entry - I've hijacked Amy's diary for a few moments so that I can relay this important message to our sponsors. (sounds like a commercial break!)

Financially, we are doing very well, thanks entirely to your efforts and generosity. All of our nine children currently have sufficient sponsorship. However, we are facing an unusual and unforeseen problem; we don't have your contact details!

We have received donations from some people that we can't identify or cannot get in touch with. This is making it very difficult to predict our finances and to make sure that all of our sponsors are added to our mailing list and receive details about their sponsored child. There is also the issue of Gift Aid which can make each donation worth 28% more to Forever Angels!

So please, if you have not spoken to us about your donation, send us your contact details by email, telephone or post (our contact details can be found here) so that we can thank you properly and so that you can share in these wonderful children's lives.

Well - this morning I was being told that Haji has only a slim chance of survival and he was very lethargic again.....but by this evening - he was coping without oxygen and he has just been moved off Intensive Care and onto Children's Ward!

He still has fever and breathing problems and has a long way to go - but I don't think he is ready to give up fighting yet.

Social Welfare are trying to make contact with his father.

Thank you for all your kind words and prayers for him....

I am just about to take Sarah to the hospital for her 3rd antibiotic injection for a large boil on her eye. She doesn't seem to care about it one bit - but it is getting very big and we do not want the infection to spread. She has had warts and boils and spots since she arrived - but we are hoping that this strong course of antibiotics will get rid of them for good.

We think that Bruno is going to be transferred tomorrow to another orphanage with older children where he can go to school and interact with children his own age.....we were told by Social Welfare that he was 3 years old - but now I know him - I would guess he is more like 7. He is a very intelligent little boy and needs more stimulation than a Baby Home can give him.
It will be sad to see him go - but will be much better for Bruno in the long run.

I think that is all our news for today.
Good Night X

Just a quick note to let you all know that Haji is now in Intensive Care in the Government Hospital - Bugando. He went down hill again this morning and we were advised to take him to hospital as he was going into heart failure. He is now wired up to heart monitors and is on oxygen and we are waiting for a blood transfusion for him.

Despite all this - he is still eating well and as I left him just now (in the great hands of Julia and Gwilym our two volunteers) he even gave a little smile.
He is a fighter that is for sure.....

Well I have just brought Haji home from the hospital. He is still very sick - but there are too many mosquitoes in the hospital - and I felt he would receive 'safer' care at home at Forever Angels.

He has been diagnosed with Pneumonia and well as severe anemia. His hemoglobin level was just 6.1 - which, in the UK, would result in blood transfusions and intensive care! Here, somehow, children bounce back from such states of illheath - so we are hoping that Haji will too.

Unfortunately - his father waited too long before asking for help and Haji is now too weak and fragile to fight infections....but already he is my miracle baby as through everything - he still has a smile to give.

He will return to hospital each day for injections of antibiotics - although he has virtually no muscle to inject and a vein can not be found.

Thank you to Doctor Kocher, Lisa and Andrew Valleley and my wonderful volunteers who have cared for, advised and sat with Haji throughout the day and night whilst he has been so sick.

Other news briefly - Pascal's father came to visit today and was very happy to see how well he is doing - and even got his first smile from his son.
Rama is settling in well but appears to be unwell so we will be taking him to hospital for tests tomorrow.

Thank you to anyone who does actually read this!
Love from Amy*

Well I have just spent the evening in the hospital with Haji and he has been admitted for the night. He came down with fever and a cough yesterday and went off his food. Today I got my good friend Doctor Andrew Valleley to check him out and he became very worried about how anemic he was and believed there is a danger he could go into heart failure.
Haji is such a fragile little boy - we took him straight to hospital where he will receive the best care.

Chloe is staying with him overnight. I must add that we are SO lucky to have Chloe as a volunteer here. She works extremely long hours, barely takes any time off and does many jobs above and beyond the call of duty. She adores the children at the Baby Home and I can honestly say that I would not manage without her. Thanks Chloe!

Please all be thinking about Haji and wishing him well.....

Well today we collected our 9th child - 18 month old Ramadhani. His mother died last month due to an accident at work and his father is too poor to care for him. He lived in a tiny house made from corrugated iron sheets and plastic sheeting - with no furniture - not even a bed or mattress.
He is however, healthy looking and has been fed well. After a good wash and meal - Ramadhani was seen smiling as he played alongside the other children.

I can't believe we have only been open 2 months and we are almost half full already!

Well, the days seem to pass me by at the Baby Home more quickly than they ever have before in Tanzania! I seem to spend hours and hours at Social Welfare or the Police Station or the Hospitals - but we are achieving great things so it is all worth it. I think I am going to have to set aside a day off every week where I get to just stay at Forever Angels and just give the children cuddles though!!

Today we managed to set the motions in gear to get Birth Certificates for Mia and Asha which are needed if they are going to be adopted. They should be ready on Friday! Fingers crossed......
We also managed to get a Police Abandonment report for Mia (we got Asha's already last week) - again meaning the adoption process can be hurried along.

I don't know of any other orphanage which does this 'paper chasing' for its children - but being an adoptive parent myself, I know how frustrating it can be waiting for someone else to do it! I think we waited 7 months for this paperwork to be gathered before we were allowed to take our adopted son Barnabas home - which is what we want to prevent for Forever Angels babies. We want our children to be returned to their families, or be adopted as quickly as possible and are trying to do everything we can to help this happen.

All the children at Forever Angels who have family have been visited so far which we are incredibly happy about. I also spend a lot of time driving family members back to their homes - but I feel it is essential to help these families as much as we can and encourage them to visit their children as often as possible. We always offer a meal to these family members when they visit (which is often the best meal they have eaten in weeks.)

The children are all getting along well. I went in yesterday morning and they were all sat eating tomatoes - even Yohana who has refused to eat anything remotely healthy until a couple of weeks ago was munching happily on one between his snack and lunch times!

Haji is getting stronger each day and will sit up and play happily now. He is such an adorable little boy and is eating very well - we can't wait to see him healthy and well nourished.

Our two baby girls - Asha and Mia are adored by all and are happy and contented babies now - growing well and reaching their milestones.

Yohana is MUCH happier now that he has Bruno to play with and the two are always up to some sort of mischief together! We are going to start a Pre-school session for them next week to encourage reading and writing skills.

Sarah and Yunisi continue to play well together and are adored by all. They have put on 3kg in the last month between them - and have grown out of all their clothes so Chloe just had to issue them both with a new box full!

Pascal is just the cuddliest baby ever - happy and healthy and always sleeping or eating - he is a typical man! His father visits regularly and phones me every day to see how he is getting on - we are very hopeful of a reunification here.

Anyhow - that's all my news for today. Night Night.