Dear All,


Unfortunately for everyone, Forever Angels has become the target of scammers and con-men. If you have received an e-mail asking you to cash a cheque for us or take part in any kind of financial arrangement on behalf of Forever Angels - This is a Scam! The individual that has contacted you does not represent Forever Angels and should not be trusted.

Forever Angels is a reputable charity adhering to the highest standards of ethical practice. We are shocked and appalled that someone would try to take advantage of the good faith we have built up amongst our supporters and the general public. Trust is essential to any charity and anything that threatens the trust of our donors, threatens the viability of our entire project and therefore the very lives of the children we strive to care for.

As you can imagine, I am more than a little angry.

If you have received Emails, phone calls or Instant Messages from someone soliciting your aid to transfer money on our behalf, I am asking you to please email the details to me at ben@foreverangels.org so that I can have the perpetrators tracked down. This activity is illegal and I will do my best ensure the scammers are found and prosecuted.


Thank you for you understanding,


Regards,


Ben Hathaway

Director, Forever Angels

Well another week is over and I have been bad at writing my diary again! I do have a small excuse though - we had no internet for 6 days!

All is well at the Baby Home - Dotto's rash turned out not to be chicken pox afterall - so that was a relief!

We have had a number of local business men and women in Mwanza visiting the Baby Home this week and bringing the children food, nappies, milk and clothes. We are truly greatful for this local support - thank you.

The children are all doing really well apart from the usual coughs and colds!
Adamu is now able to sit up and is very happy with himself!
Lauren is now smiling lots and is very cute!
Sammy is now properly crawling all over the place and has officially taken Haji's place as 'naughty child!'

The preschool is finally dry so we hope to 'move in' next week and start classes in there.

Mary's Mum came to visit for the first time. She told us she did not have long to live and has no other family members to care for Mary and asked Ben and I if we would adopt her. We would both be thrilled to have Mary as our little girl so we hope to pursue her adoption in the very near future.

Mrs Misana (the Reginal Social Welfare Officer in Mwanza) is very sick in hospital and will be off work for a number of months. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope she will be back in the office soon....Social Welfare in Mwanza does not run very efficiently without her.

We must have had a good week as I have nothing else to report!?
Oh - except there is a new premature baby girl (Lisa) in the Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital who we have been asked to take. She should join us within the next week.

I can't believe it is Friday again and I haven't written for a whole week! Time flies when you have 36 children, 41 staff, 4 volunteers and a young family to think about!

Talking of volunteers - I MUST mention Emma and Tarransay! They have been at Forever Angels for 4 months and apparently I have barely mentioned them on the website!? (Sorry!?) The only reason I can think of is that they have been FABULOUS and done SO much it is hard to decide what to write. They have become part of Forever Angels in every way and have played a part in all aspects of the Baby Home life....and more. They have made a Baby Home garden with the children, made a GREAT job of the children's Life Books, been to clinics and hospital appointments, come on family visits and collected new children. They have beeb truly wonderful and I will miss them SO much when they leave in a couple of weeks.....as will all the staff, children and other volunteers.
THANK YOU GUYS - you have been amazing and I will truly miss you both. Welcome back any time....or you could just stay?...

We have had a chaotic few days at the Baby Home as Dotto got a rash which looks a LOT like chicken pox!? If all of our children were healthy I wouldn't worry at all and just let it spread amongst them...but chicken pox is very dangerous to children with HIV - life threatening in fact. We were trying to isolate Dotto so she spent a day at the Volunteer House (thank you Tara!) but the contagious period of chicken pox starts before the spots even appear so maybe that was too little, too late?
We got 4 different Doctors opinions and came to the conclusion that it is not chicken pox....but we are still not 100% sure!
Just to be safe we decided to isolate the HIV positive children who are severely immunocompromised....which right now, is just Mary. So until we are sure, Mary is staying with me! Not that I am complaining - I adore this little angel.

The website is going to get a 'face lift' in the next few weeks - so look out for our new pages and new image soon.

I'd like to make a public 'Thank you' to our good friends Jo and Mark Topley. They adopted Beth (Asha) in December 2006 from Forever Angels and since then they have become good friends of ours. We recently had dinner with them and they helped us a lot to see where Forever Angels is going, where I need to ask for help and what can be done to make life easier for us! Sometimes, running something like Forever Angels can take over your life and it sometimes takes a good friend to advise how you can keep yourself sane! Thank you so much guys!

Mary is currenlty sat on my lap and wanting a little more attention - so for now, Happy Easter to all of you out there, from all of us at Forever Angels.

Well, today I went to vist baby Marco in Intensive Care and found out that he had died in the night. This little angel sadly didn't make it to Forever Angels....and for that I am very sad. The only saving grace is that he is no longer in any pain and is no longer suffering. Sometimes life is too cruel.

On a happier note - last night Yunisi, Joseph, Mwita and Charlie went to the local International School to watch a School Production. They had a wonderful time and Joseph clapped and danced along with a big grin on his face!

We took 6 babies for their DPT injections today so we have a few sore legs and fevers this evening. Apart from that - the children are generally well and all doing well.

I have added some photos to my last post about the Baby Home trip....

Well today we went on our biggest Forever Angels outing yet! We were very kindly invited to the Tanzanian Brewery's 'Family Day' which was held just 300 yards from the Baby Home. We took 28 of the children - leaving just the tiny tiny ones behind (and Haji who was not feeling well.)

All the staff and volunteers each took one baby on their backs in a kanga, and a toddler and dressed in their best clothes - off we all went!





There was dancing and music and wonderful food and a great time was had by all. The children drank sodas and ate huge plates of chips and chicken!





They even provided baby milk and hot water for our little ones! The TV station, Star TV was there so the staff are all very excited about 'becoming famous'! Most of the children were totally worn out by the end of the day!





Thank you VERY much TBL for all of your wonderful financial support in the past - and for thinking of Forever Angels on this special day and for treating us all so well. We truly appreciate it and all had a wonderful time.

Other news - We received a new baby girl on Thursday. She is 4 weeks old and truly beautiful! Welcome Rosie to Forever Angels. She is an abandoned baby girl and she already has families interested in adopting her.

The Baby Home illnesses seem to have stopped now - but Haji and Adamu are still feverish and not very happy.

We are getting another baby boy on Tuesday. His name is Marco and he is 6 weeks old, but only 1.3kg. His Mum died from HIV and the rest of his family have not returned to visit him. He is quite sick and very malnourished. I truly hope that the love Forever Angels can give him will allow this little boy to thrive.

I guess there aren't many Mother's in the world who have as many 'children' as I do! My own three children are the most amazing little kids on earth. They are kind and caring and they make me laugh out loud each and every day. And my 34 other children at Forever Angels also make me so incredibly proud and happy. Each one has a distressing, horrific or just plain heartbreaking story to tell - and yet they are
amazingly resiliant and such happy and loving children.

I feel honored to be a 'Mum' to so many wonderful children this Mother's day.........and to my own Mum I would like to make a public thankyou! She is the most amazing and inspirational woman I know. She has four children of her own and she dedicates herlife to us all. Without my Mum - Forever Angels would not exist. She is my 'silent partner'.....she does all the paperwork and fundraising and thank you letters and organisation in the UK - but doesn't get to do the cuddling of babies out here in Tanzania as much as she would like. She works day in, day out to make the UK side of Forever Angels run so smoothly and efficiently and for that I am so unbelievably greatful.

Thank you Mum.....I love you so much. Happy Mothers Day.

The Bethany girls are settling in really well and appear to be very happy. Finally I have some photos of them!

Immakulata



Minza



Angela



Hollo



We are getting the two newborn babies tomorrow. One is an abandoned baby girl, and the other is a baby boy whose Mum has psychiatric problems.

Well I have been in Dar-es-Salaam with my family for 2 nights and so there is lots of news to catch up on......

First I'd like to say 'welcome' to Tara our new Canadian volunteer. We look forwards to having you with us at Forever Angels.

Welcome also to our 50th Forever Angels Baby - Joyce! Joyce arrived on Friday and is an adorable 7 month old baby girl. Her Mum recently died leaving her father with 6 other children. She is tiny but she seems very healthy. We will update her profile tomorrow!

The illnesses seem to be panning out finally! We had a diaoreah bug, then flu, then a strange fever bug going around - but most of the children are now just fine! Mary had a strange swelling on her leg which looked like an abcess - but it could be swelling from a badly given DPT injection? Anyhow - she is having antibiotics now and it seems to be getting better. Two of the ICU nurses who used to care for Mary in hospital came to visit her last week and they were all so thrilled that she is doing so well.

The new Bethany girls have arrived and have settled in SO well. I will post photos of them tomorrow. They are called Angela, Hollo, Immakulata and Minza and they are all very confident, hard working, polite and friendly girls. I think they will become an excellent addition to the Forever Angels Family. Welcome girls....

We had a BBQ on Wednesday to welcome the Bethany girls and to 'celebrate' finishing the new fence. (Actually the BBQ was a 'goodbye' for my Dad who was due to leave on Thursday - but he has decided to stay for another month!!) Anyhow - my Dad arranged to have 2 goats and he and Eleanorer prepared the whole thing. Unfortunately - it rained SO much on Thursday morning and even started to hailstone! Everyone got soaking wet - but the food was lovely and the kids and staff enjoyed their food....even though it was 2 hoursd late! (The volunteers and me couldn't quite bring ourselves to eat the freshly slaughtered goat but I'm told it was delicious!!)

We had a wonderful visitor on Thursday morning, just as I was leaving to go to Dar....ChaCha brought Bahati to see us. Actually, it was because he was not feeling well and she wanted me to check him out for malaria. He was looking good though and it was great to see him....but what made me most happy was that he did not want to play with the toys or go to any of the staff and volunteers - he wanted to stay with his Mum! He is clearly very attached to ChaCha and it made me so happy to see this little family so well bonded and together.

Chloe also bumped into Salum on Friday at hopsital. His Aunt was taking him to Sickle Cell Clinic at the hospital. Again - Chloe said he was quite shy with her and he was obviously very attached to his Aunt. It is great that they are caring for him so well and attending his clinics. This is what Forever Angels is all about and I am thrilled that these 2 boys are now back in loving, happy homes. And in these two situations, Salum's father and Bahati's Mum are both working at Forever Angels so we know that they are able to support their children and we will remain in contact with them.

It seems we will have a busy week next week as there are apparently 3 (or maybe even 4) babies at Bugando Hospital who need to come to Forever Angels. One is an abandoned baby girl, one is a newborn boy whose mother is in the Psychiatric Hospital and the third is a very sick little girl whose Mum has died from AIDS. We will visit them on Monday and if their paperwork is ready - and then we will bring them home.

If we get all 3, it will bring us to a total of 37 children.....very close to our capacity of 45. And then what? People ask me that every single day. What will I do when we get full? To be perfectly honest - I do not know the answer to that question. I hope that many of our babies (like Maggie, Seba, Pascal, Omari, Dotto) will return to live with their fathers this year. I hope that others will be adopted. But we are still getting many more children into Forever Angels than are leaving and yes it does keep me awake at night.

My wish for all of these children is a loving family and I will do everything I can to make that happen for each and every one of them. In the meantime - I can squish more cots into each room if I have to and I can employ more staff to care for them if needed. What I can't do (or, so my UK Trustees keep telling me!) is afford to do this. Our expenditure is already over our income. Babies keep coming and we CAN help them - but not without regular funds.

PLEASE - if you are reading this and do not yet sponsor a Baby at Forever Angels - please help us to do the wonderful work we are currenlty doing. Log onto justgiving.com and sponsor one of our babies. Even £5 a month is a HUGE help to us and means that we can continue to help these amazing children. Thank you.