I have taken a few photos lately on a new camera which I carry round in my handbag (my normal camera is too large to carry round so inevitably it never gets used!!)....but I lost the 'lead' to upload them onto my computer! Anyhow - it is now found so here are a few photos from the last few weeks...

This is Issa moving to Tumaini Children's Home. He was very shy and upset at first - but we are told that he is settling in well and making friends which is great.



This is Grace and her new Mummy. I bumped into them in town last week and it was so lovely to see her so happy and attached to her new Mum! Grace is now called Neema (which is the Swahili word for Grace)




This is Elizabeth after her surgery. She is still in hospital but she is doing quite well and we hope to bring her home on Friday. This little girl is not going to have an easy life and I expect many weeks in hospital with her - but we will give her lots of love and care at Forever Angels and hope that her shunt now works and her Hydrocephelus is now controlled....at least for a while....



And this is a one month old baby called Pendo who is in the bed next to Elizabeth in hospital. Her Mum is only 15 years old and she has no family. The baby has a Saccrococcygeal teratoma which is a tumour at the base of the coccyx.



It is huge and the poor Mum and baby are not coping very well. The Surgeons here can operate to remove the tumour - but it costs 250,000 shillings ( £125) and there is no way the Mother could ever afford to pay that.

Thank you to my Mum who is paying for Pendo's surgery (on Friday) and for the surgeries of a number of other children, like Elizabeth, who need shunts for severe Hydrocephelus.

Sometimes the things you see in hospitals here are so shocking....after 7 years I am still not prepared for what I see each day I enter the hospitals - and it really is often down to money as to whether a life can be saved or not?

I don't think - even after 7 years of life in Africa - I can ever get used to the unfairness of our world and how a baby like Pendo, if I had not met her, would slowly and unnecessarily die?

We can't singlehandedly save the world....but we can do quite a lot with a bit of money and a whole lot of compassion.

This is our latest 'Angel' to arrive at Forever Angels. Meet one month old Samwel.







Samwel's Mother is sadly ill in a Psychiatric Hosital and no other famly members are known. Samwel is a healthy little boy and very alert for his age. He brings the total number of chidren to 48, and the Tiny Baby House total to 11 (too many!) so Lilly has 'graduated' the the main Baby Home.

This is Yazidi - he was just 1.4kg when he came to us a couple of weeks ago - but he is now a healthy 2.1kg!



Elizabeth had surgery again today to have a new shunt put in. The surgery went well but she is in a lot of pain and I have a feeling this will be a frequently re-occuring problem in her life. Please have her in your thoughts.

Well Elizabeth is sick again and in hospital. Her surgery went well and she was discharged a couple of days later. However, she got an infection in her shunt and soon became very fussy, stopped drinking and started vomiting. We took her back to Bugando on Thursday night....and she saw a Doctor for the first time yesterday afternoon (FIVE days later!)

The Doctor says that she has a severe infection and we have to wait for that to clear up before they can do surgery to repair / replace her shunt.

I have a feeling this little girl is going to spend a lot of her life in and out of hospital.....

Today we received a new 4 week old baby boy called Lucas.






Lucas's mother is mentally ill and unable to care for her baby. He does have some Grandparents but they are in extreme poverty and can not care for him right now. They plan to take him home in one year.





Lucas weighs 3kg and appears to be a healthy child. He has been fed on water and ugali though so we need to carefully monitor his feeds and make sure he does not have any stomach infections.





Lucas brings our total in the Tiny Baby house to 10! That makes it a very busy house and we have had to hire new staff to work with our tiny babies and Special Needs Children.





Elizabeth's shunt is still not draining properly so we think she may need surgery again. She is home now but not a very happy little girl.





It was a crazily busy day again today - but these are the main events I guess!

Get ready for a long one today - it has been a busy week!

First, Issa left Forever Angels and went to live at Tumaini Orphanage. Issa is a beautiful, loving 4 year old boy - but he was just needing more attention, more stimulation and more freedom than Forever Angels could offer him. He needed older children to play with and since all the Orphanages round here are getting full - we needed to transfer him sooner rather than later.

It is always SO sad to let these children leave Forever Angels - especially when they are not going to a family. That is our goal - to find a loving family for each and every child in our care. I know it is not realistic - but it is still my dream and when it doesn't work out I can't help but feel that we failed the child.

Issa will be fine at Tumaini - he will be with Joseph and Mwita and he will be ok. But it is still not the future I had dreamt of for this little boy.
Issa - we love you.

Then, just as we got home from taking Issa to his new home, we had to admit Rebecca to hospital as she had pneumonia. She had a chest infection since we received her last week - but we had been treating her with antibiotics. On Wednesday, she
apparently vomited (and maybe aspirated but no one is sure?) and suddenly her breathing got faster and more difficult.
We took her to one hospital who basically refused to treat her and finally ended up in Casualty at Bugando where she was put on oxygen and antibiotics.

After a couple of days, she was fine again - happy and laughing and entertaining everyone in the hospital! But it was a very worrying few hours....

On Friday we took Elizabeth to her monthly Hydrocephelus clinic. Elizabeth had been a little fussy and had low fever on two occasions during the week....but it subsided quickly and she seemed ok.

None the less - Meghan and I have been very worried about her - we know nothing about Hydrocephelus and had been told nothing by any Doctors. No one seemed to know what 'warning' signs we should be looking out for and any research I did on the internet was about children with very mild cases - no one seemed to have a head as large as Elizabeths and no one seemed to be able to give me any advice on how to care for her?

Anyhow - Meghan and Charlotte took her to clinic and the Surgeon took one look at her head and told them that her shunt was not working and she needed surgery that day to replace / unblock it.

When we think back to Elizabeth 3 weeks ago and compare her to Friday - her head did seem a little less 'boggy' the last few days...but seeing her every day - it is hard to notice such changes?

So - Elizabeth was prepped for surgery. We gave her no food and drink.....and waited. Then we were told that all surgeries at the Hospital were cancelled until Monday because there was no water in theatre. (There has been no power in Mwanza all week and so the city also has no water as it can't be pumped) So we fed Elizabeth, got her settled and left her and Rebecca with Selina, one of my caregivers, for a weekend in hopsital. (Thank you Selina - you are a superstar!)

We can only have been home 5 minutes when I got a call from the surgeon to say that the water was back and Elizabeth had just been taken to surgery! So Meghan and I rushed back and spent Friday night sitting in theatre, being bitten crazily by
mosquitos waiting for Elizabeth to come out of surgery. Finally, around 7pm, she was wheeled out and woke up seconds later.

The surgery went well, the shunt was unblocked and her head immediately was softer and more 'boggy' again. We know much more about shunts and hydrocephelus than we did! However - no one actually seems to be able to tell us whether Elizabeth's head should shrink down to a normal size - or stay the same?! We've had Doctors give us answers from - "It will be back to normal size within 48 hours", to "It will stay the same size" to "She will grow into her head and it wont look so abnormal as she grows".....so no one knows it seems and we have to wait and see what her future holds and how long it may be?

Anyhow - it was a stressful day.

As we left Elizabeth and walked out of the Surgical Ward, a Mamma with a baby (also with severe hydrocephalus) came running to ask me how we had received surgery so quickly for Elizabeth. She took me to a room where there were at least 40 babies all with severe hydrocephelus - some worse than Elizabeth - others just the same and a few, not as severe...but soon to be. These Mamma's explained to me that they had been in the hospital for between 2 and 6 MONTHS waiting for surgery for their babies
but they couldn't afford to pay for it! They were sleeping FIVE babies to a bed, and others sharing mattresses on the floor.
I was astounded. There was one baby in particular who I doubt survived the night she looked so sick. Many also had spina bifida with the most immense tumours on the bottom of their spines (sometimes larger then the babies themselves!)

I just did not know what to say. Why did Elizabeth have surgery so fast? Maybe because we are white? Maybe because we have money? Maybe because we question Doctors and demand treatment? None of these are justifiable. Elizabeth is a beautiful little girl who deserves to be healthy....at least to have a chance at a future - but so are the other 40 babies in that ward....and the other hundreds who are apparently sent away from hospital every day as the ward is so full and they have no where for them to sleep.

One Mamma was telling me about her family back home. She was a teacher but lost her job because she has been off work for 6 months with her baby waiting for shunt surgery. She has 5 other children at home who can not go to school because she has no income anymore to pay school fees - and they are all sick because they are not getting enough food.

The surgery cost us £23. Just £23. And yet these babies are lying in hospital waiting to die because they can't afford to have it.

I just wanted to shout at the Doctors and ask what the hell they were playing at. I did in fact, the next day (sorry Darias!). He explained to me that yes, these children are deserving of surgery - but there just is not enough money to pay for them all. Apparently some surgeons came from USA and did a week of free Shunt surgery a few months ago - and cleared the entire hospital of hydrocephelus patients...but the next day it was full again!

Darias (The Surgeon) seemed to think the issue was not doing the Shunt Surgery - but finding the root cause of this high incidence of Hydrocephelus and Spina Bifida in Mwanza. I have just been researching on the internet about a link between hydrocephelus and Mercury Poisoning....and how much Mercury is put out into the Environment in Tanzania during the mining process. I am sure there must be a link here. I have never seen such severe cases of hydrocephelus - or so many of them.

It was just heartbreaking and we left hospital feeling like life just really is not fair.

I took toys to all the babies yesterday and they were so happy to have something to play with. But I want to do more. Elizabeth is special. But so are all of those children? Weeks like this one make you realise that you just can't save the world and what we do do, is such a small drop in the ocean.

Then today (Sunday again you realise!) - I was called to the Baby Home at 6.30am as Bianca was unconcious again!! It was exactly the same time and day as it happened two weeks ago so we are left quite confused but I am starting to think it is a Blood Sugar problem and we will monitor her levels this week to see if it gets low at all. She was fine by the afternoon and back to her normal self.

On a good note - I happened to bump into Gracie in town this week who was adopted 2 months ago. She was so happy and talkative and clearly in love with her new Mummy. It was wonderful to see her.

I want to thank Asha, Beccy and Charlotte for all their hard work this last fortnight. They have been volunteering at Forever Angels and have been wonderful. Becci and Charlotte gave us wonderful medical advice and helped with our (numerous!) medical emergencies and they also painted an amazing car track on our new play area floor. It looks amazing! Thank you so much guys - we have loved having you.

If anyone is interested in Volunteering - we are in need of Volunteers from now to February next year. Please email me (amy@foreverangels.org) if you are interested.

Thank you to all our sponsors - I have sent out Sponsor Updates this past week with photos of your Sponsor Child. We have had such problems with our electricity though that I think many of them failed. If you sponsor a child but did not receive an upadte from me this week - please send an email to let me know and I will try again! Thank you so much for you kind support - we truly couldn't run Forever Angels without it.

Lets hope next week is a little less stressful?.....

You are all warmly invited to a Musical Extravaganza in aid of Forever Angels Baby Home on October 2nd 2009.

The event will take place at Nantwich Civic Hall in Nantwich, Cheshire and the evening promises to be full of wonderful musical delights....from the Bethany Choir from Tanzania to 'Musical Mayhem' to Tim Lee.

Tickets cost £10 and can be bought from Val Lithgow on 01606 554271.

All proceeds go directly to supporting the children at Forever Angels Baby Home - it would be wonderful to see you there...

Well - Bianca is now fine! We still do not know what was wrong with her but later on Sunday evening she was back to her old self again. I think it was probably a Urine Infection - but why she fell unconcious with no other prior symptoms - I do not know! We tested her Blood Glucose levels just to be sure and they were normal. Anyhow - she is on a course of Broad Spectrum antibiotcs and is now totally fine!

Today we received two new babies bringing our total to 47 children!

Welcome to 6 week old Yazidi and 5 month old Rebecca . Yazidi weighs only 1.4kg and is just adorable and Rebecca is such a smiley baby (though not for cameras it seems!)



Elizabeth had a fever this evening so I am very worried about her. Elizabeth is our baby with Hydrocephelus and since her head is so large, and she has a new shunt from her brain into her abdomen....the risk of infection is very high for her. I am slowly falling in love with this little girl.....but I probably shouldn't be.....her life expectancy is probably very short and I do not know what sort of quality of life she is even having? She must be living with immense pain having such pressure in her head - and I do not think she can see or hear. Life is so unfair sometimes....