This is our newly painted TV room at Forever Angels. The children were 'drawn around' and then painted. It looks lovely and really brightens the place up.

Thank you to Amber and the other volunteers for doing this - I can't wait to see the other rooms....

Our internet has been broken for a few days but now it is working again - hence the large number of updates today!!

I just thought I would add a few 'Look at me now' photos of the children.....even I am amazed at how well some of these babies have developed in such a short space of time....

Jessica - on arrival and 8 weeks later



Adamu - on arrival and one year later



Laurancia - on arrival and 8 months later



Mayega - in July on arrival and 2 months later




Mabeja on arrival and 8 months later




And here are our two youngest members of the Baby Home - on the left is Imani and on the right is Ella. They are both about a month old - just 7 days apart in fact - don't they look similar!! I have to be honest and say that I have difficulty telling them apart!



That's all for now.....

On Friday we received another baby girl! That makes 5 children in 6 days! This is the most arrivals we have ever had in such a short space of time.

Friday's bundle was a little 6 or 7 month old girl called Victoria. Her Mum left her at a house in Mwanza with a bag of clothes and some food next to her. Victoria has been very well cared for and I do not know what suddenly caused her Mum to abandon her.

Victoria is not yet happy at Forever Angels - she is clearly missing her Mum and is very difficult to settle. She is desperately looking around for her Mum and does not want to be comforted by anyone else. Usually the children we receive are so young they do not really have close bonds to anyone...or they have been so severely abused or neglected, they they cherish any love and attention they receive. It is very sad when we receive clearly loved and well looked after children who have very strong attachments. I really hope her Mum will realise what she has done and come to find her baby - but if not we hope to find an adoptive family for Victoria.





Meanwhile the Volunteers have finished painting another room at the Baby Home and it looks great. I will post photos later of this. We welcommed another great volunteer this week - Nancy. Nancy is from the UK and will be with us for 5 months. I can already see that she will be a wonderful addition to Forever Angels.

Haji and Imani are are sick at the moment and we have a few coughs and colds going round - but in general - Forever Angels is running smoothly and we have had a good, but very busy week!

Today we received two more children into our care! It has been a busy few weeks with children coming and going and we are now back up to 42 children at Forever Angels.

Two beautiful baby girls arrived today. One is called Hollo and she is about 3 months old. She is very malnourished and tiny - but such a happy little thing and never stops smiling!





The other is called Ella and she is a month old. She is a very pretty little thing with lots of soft curls.





Both girls have got mothers but they are sick in the psychiatric hospital and they have no other known family.

We do not think that the girl's mothers will ever be able to take care of their babies - so we hope that Social Welfare can trace other family members or allow these girls to be fostered and adopted.

Abdalla (who we received last week) is doing REALLY well. He has gained a kilo already and is like a different little boy! He has constantly got a smile on his face!!



Alfie (who came to Forever Angels yesterday) is just adorable!! He is one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen....with amazing eyes! I am not 'officially' allowed to have favourites - but if I could, Albie would steal first place! He has the cutest smile and although he is still very frail - he is eating well and settling in nicely. Even in one day he seems to have blossomed!

Alfie when he first arrived:



After a day of food and love:



My Volunteers are busy painting! They have finished painting the Play Room walls (which after 2 years of grubby hands all over them had started to become quite 'shabby looking') and they are now revamping the TV room. Their work is amazing and it really brightens the place up! Thank you guys.... I will post photos tomorrow..........

Today we received another angel at the Baby Home.

Alfie is about 1 year old and is severely malnourished. He was left by his Mum in their house about a month ago and then found and cared for by their landlord since then. This little boy is starving, weighing only 6.95kg and he has no energy.

Despite this, he is HIV negative and I am sure that with some love, attention and good nutrition - he will do just fine.

Alfie is adorable...he has the cutest face and the biggest eyes!

Weighing only 6.95 kg..........look at those eyes!

Today, Dotto went home to live with her Mum, ChaCha, and her older brothers and sister.
The whole family were thrilled to be taking Dotto home with them and I know that theywill love and care for Dotto very well.



Dotto has lived at Forever Angels Baby Home for more than a year and has developed from being a tiny 6 months old baby, to a cheeky, inquisitive and funloving little girl. We will all miss Dotto at Forever Angels but are so happy that she is now back home with her family where she belongs.

ChaCha works at Forever Angels and we are also still caring for her youngest child - 14 day old Imani. We will always have a commitment and relationship with this family so we will be able to visit Dotto (and her brother Bahati) and will give regular updates of their progress.



Goodbye Dotto - we will all miss you.

We now have 39 children at Forever Angels - but I am sure it will not stay at this number for very long!!

Today was a wonderful day. Rosie went home to live with her new family!

Mr and Mrs Batenga live in Mwanza and are clearly overjoyed to have Rosie as their baby girl! A number of her new relatives came to collect her and Rosie was full of smiles for her new family and she went home with them with a huge grin on her face!


Rosie's new Family




Rosie and her Mummy




Rosie was one of the 'favourites' among my staff - and she was especially adored by Immakulata one of our Bethany girls - so we did have some tears saying 'Goodbye' to her this afternoon.

But from me, they were simply tears of joy. There are so many orphans in this world....SO many just here in Mwanza. The children we receive at Forever Angels is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is nothing I want more for each and every child at Forever Angels than to be able to go home to a family who loves them. That is our mission here at the Baby Home - to care for these wonderful babies temporarily until a loving family for them can be found. And as much as I love these children - my dreams for them are health, happiness and a family....and toady, Rosie found that family. I know whe will be dearly loved by her new Mummy, Daddy and relatives.


Rosie with her Mum, Dad and sister




Good bye Rosie....we love you.

Yesterday we received a new little boy - 2 year old Abdalla.



His Mum sadly died from AIDS a few weeks ago and he has no other known family. Abdalla is also sadly suffering from HIV and is very underweight and weak. He needs to be on ARV medication now so we will be taking him to clinic to start this and we hope that, like our other positive children, the medication soon turns him into a happy and healthy little boy.

I don't want to speak too soon...but it seems that we finally have a Baby Home of healthy children!! It seems to have been weeks since we have not had at least 1 (and up to 25!) children sick - but right now they are all fine!!

We had a Staff Meeting yesterday which we are now going to have every month. We have 'informal' ones occasionally - but the Staff have asked for more structured meetings once a month. Yesterday went well. I did a training session on 'Bathing Chidren' as it is not always the calmest or happiest time at the Baby Home and I wanted to try to improve this. The staff were all keen and interested and bathing this evening was much better.

Next week I am going to 'borrow' someone from Social Welfare to drive round Mwanza and trace a number of our children's families. We have a number of children who are classed as 'abandoned children' as they were found in Mwanza on road sides....but, like in Felista's case - it seems that sometimes the person who found them are actually related to the child, or know more about the child, than the Police find out!
We are going to ensure that if these children DO have familiy - then they are returned to them....or, if we can prove that the children ARE actually abandoned and have no known family - then we can get the paperwork stating this fact ready and make it easier for these children to be adopted in the future.

That's all today....

Well, we have had no internet again for a couple of weeks hence the long delay in writing!

We do now have internet connection thanks to SpiderSat who donated the equipment to Forever Angels. Thank You SO much - we REALLY appreciate this.

A lot has happened (again!) since I last wrote on my diary so this will have to be a sneak preview of everything....

The Birthday Party:

Forever Angels is 2 years old! We celebrated in style on Saturday 30th August with lots of cake, fun and laughter from all the children. We had many visitors come to join our party which was wonderful - friends, teachers, nurses, doctors and managers of other orphanages. It was such good fun. We hired out a bouncy castle and a 'slip and slide' and the children all had the BEST day! Joseph, Tumaini, Haji and Charlie must have been up and down the slip and slide a hundred times each!! The kids had such a ball.









Other children spent more time on the food....



in particular the birthday cakes!!...





The Bethany girls arranged some singing and dancing with the staff and they all sounded wonderful performing for our guests.

All in all - a wonderful day was had by all and the children went to bed full of junk food and utterly exhausted!!

This has to be my favourite photo from the party....Seba with a new fashion accessory!....



Ill Children:

We have been having another 'ill' time at the Baby Home. Sometimes it seems never ending and I wonder if these bugs are ever going to go! In the past 2 weeks - the staff and volunteers have all been ill with a stomach bug, and the children all have flu, conjunctivitis, skin fungal infections and random fevers. None of the children are actually acting sick - but all are in need of lots of cuddles and sadly, we are very short staffed!!

Volunteers:

Our volunteers continue to do an amazing job and it always amazes me how much love and affection they give to our children....even when they are snotty and sick and full of illness and not particularly appealing! Many of our current volunteers are soon leaving and a new batch are arriving this month. We welcomed jane this week from Liverpool who is already settling in brilliantly.

I must say a HUGE thank you and goodbye to April - our long term volunteer who left this morning. She was an AMAZING volunteer who has developed the Baby Home through the Pre School is such a huge way. She has also produced our Forever Angels Christmas cards and Calender for this year which are very professional. Thank you SO much and good luck with your adventures....your enthusiasm never fails to amaze me....keep in touch.

Thank you to everyone who has applied to volunteer recently - I am sorry that I have not replied but I WILL be in touch now that our internet is sorted. Just for information - we do not have any volunteer placements available for the rest of 2008.

Rain:

The rainy season is upon us which means a number of things....
- No power! During the rains the electricity cuts out ALL the time
- Flooded and bumpy roads = the rains wash away what little roads we do have in Mwanza and make them terrible to drive on
- Ill kids - like in December in England - rainy season seems to be the time when people here all get ill!
- Sleepless nights....the rain here is SO loud on the tin roofs that it is impossible to sleep...and even if you CAN sleep through it - the thunder and lightening is extremely loud and very scary!!

The most frustrating of these is the power cuts. We often go days without electricity during the rainy season and it is so difficult to run a Baby Home with no lights!!
We have just had quotes for Solar Power which will mean that we can have lights 24 hours a day - but the cost is high. ( £6,000)
If anyone knows anyone who would like to contribute towards the cost of installing Solar Panels at the Baby Home - PLEASE contact me.

Leila:

Leila (aka Mary) is now offically adopted! Ben and I went to court on Thursday last week and were given permission to adopt her as our little girl. We are both thrilled about this and know that if she was here - her Birth-Mum, Rhobi, would also have been overjoyed to know that she is finally a 'Hathaway'.
Last week was Leila's 1st birthday and we had a party tea with her friends to celebrate. She is such an amazing little girl and has overcome such huge obstacles in her little life....I can honestly say - I am the proudest Mummy alive. I am sad that Leila will never know her Birth-Mum....the last time Rhobi saw her daughter was back in April and she was still a very sick little baby. Now - you would never know that she is the same child. She is able to stand up now and is on the verge of crawling. She never, ever stops smiling!

Rhobi - I love your little girl with all of my heart and when she is old enough - she will know all about you. I know that you loved her dearly and I hope that you can now rest in peace knowing that she is legally part of a loving and happy family. Thank you for giving me the best gift anyone could ever receive.

Angelina

I wanted to mention Angelina briefly. She is one of our Teenage Orphan Leavers from Bethany and she has matured and grown so much in the few months she has lived with us. Last week she came to me with a large portion of her salary and asked me if she could donate it to the Baby Home! I think that this shows the true compassion, love and strength of these children from Bethany. I am very proud of these girls and Bethany should be too.

ChaCha's baby - Imani Charlotte

ChaCha (one of my staff whose two children - Bahati and Dotto have been cared for at the Baby Home) gave birth to a baby girl last week. Imani Charlotte weighed 2.3kg and is beautiful with a mass of curly hair. She is living at the Baby Home temporarily as ChaCha has no milk to feed her with - but she will return home to ChaCha when she is 4 months old.





Remi:

Remi went back to hospital last week as she began to vomit and have diaoreah. The hospital kept her in for observation but she began to go down hill. She stayed in hospital for a week and sadly died yesterday. The Doctors do not know what was wrong with her which is hard to accept. Today we held a lovely service for her at the Baby Home. I adored this little girl and she reminded me so much of my own baby Leila. Rest in peace Remi.



Our Angel Remi

This tiny angel has now flown,
Leaving fear and pain behind,
Although today we say goodbye to her,
She'll remain forever in our hearts and minds.

We can cry for this dear baby,
And be sad that Remi has gone,
But be happy also that she's now at peace,
And she wasn't suffering for too long.

Although Remi's life was so short,
And I still struggle to understand,
I have to believe that she is now at peace,
In a happy and loving land.

I believe Remi was here for a reason,
A reason none of us yet know,
She had her mission here on Earth,
And then sadly, it was her time to go.

I believe Remi is waiting in heaven,
And there she will dance and sing,
She will laugh each day, as she smiles and plays,
And love she will continue to bring.

Remi, you can now spread your wings and soar,
Go now up into the sky,
But know that you will always be with us,
Because Angels never ever die.

Triplets

Whilst in the hospital caring for Remi - we were also caring for a set of male triplets. They range in weight from 900 grams to 1.2kg. Their Mum is very sick and is probably not going to survive so they may well soon be coming to Forever Angels. They are still in need of a lot of Medical Care so please keep these 3 babies in your thoughts that they have the strength to fight.

And to end on good news....

This last two weeks, 2 of our children have returned home to live with their families. Theo went home to live with his Father and Grandmother last week and yesterday, Felista went home to live with her Grandmother. We are thrilled that these children are now back with a loving family and we wish them both happiness.

...and lastly - I went to visit Sarah and Pascal in their homes and both children are doing very well. They were both happy and healthy and very keen to receive (and eat!) the gifts we brought for them! It is wonderful to see these Forever Angels children reunited with their families....

I have LOTS of Baby Home news - but no internet connection and so this is just a very quick note from my friends computer to say that this morning baby Theo went home to live with his Father and Grandmother. We are sad to see this beautiful little boy leave Forever Angels (he was SUCH a snuggly baby!) - but thrilled that he is now part of a loving family.
Goodbye Theo....

LOTS of news and photos will be coming very soon....