I just realised that George is the 99th baby to have been cared for at Forever Angels since we opened three years ago! That means the next baby to arrive will be 'Baby Number 100' so I think we will have to have a party when that baby comes!

Well today we received three new babies taking our total up to 52 infants at Forever Angels! We are pretty much full to bursting now and are trying to arrange for some of our toddlers to return to their families in the next few weeks. Lauren, Deusi, Mayega, Joyce and Mathias will all be returning to their fathers before Christmas which is wonderful news. Their Fathers are all visiting them weekly now so they can build up a strong bond before they take their babies home.
Our new babies are all tiny so went to the Tiny Baby House. That took our total to 13 which is just TOO many - so little Connie and Angel today 'graduated' to the Big Baby Home! I do not think they were too happy about it - but they will soon get to grips with the new routine and the noise of the Big Baby group.

Two of our new babies are a set of twins called Ashley and Amani. They are about a month and a half old and they were abandoned next to a lady's house in Mwanza who heard them crying and took them to the Police.
They seem pretty healthy although they are very under weight and have lost a lot of weight during their stay in hospital. Ashley (a boy) weighs 2.22kg and Amani (a girl) weighs 2.25kg.

It has been a hard couple of days.

Sometimes I love life in Tanzania and I feel the work we do at Forever Angels is so wonderful....and other days I feel we are so insignificant and feel like the work we do is such a small drop in a huge ocean.....

Sometimes living here can leave you feeling drained and helpless....

Last Friday around 3pm, a man named Paulo came to my gate. He told me that his wife had died 2 weeks ago and his 9 month old son was severely ill with dehyration / diaoreah. He had taken his son (Samwel) to hospital but they said he had Malaria and would be fine. Paulo was begging me to help his baby. I did not meet baby Samwel on Friday and now I wish I had....

I am not able to just 'take' children into Forever Angels - they have to be referred by Social Welfare. I advised Paulo on Friday to go very quickly to Social Welfare to ask for help (it closes around 4pm) and told him what documentation they would require from him to prove his story was true. I also gave him some ORS solution for Samwel and told him to come back if Social Welfare would not help him.

I did not hear from him over the weekend. How I wish I had.

On Monday morning I told Social Welfare about Paulo and Samwel and was informed that 'the orphanages are all full and we can not help him'. Social Welfare had advised Paulo to take his baby to hospital if he was sick. He did this straight away, (again) and was sent away again by a Doctor telling him his baby was fine and to feed him.

Paulo came straight back to me on Monday and this time he brought his son with him. People bring babies to my gate all the time and ask me for help - but without Social Welfare permission there is little we can do apart from offer short term monetary support. But I took one look at baby Samwel and knew I had to help this little boy.

He was 9 months old but weighed probably no more than 3.5kg. He was severely dehydrated, leghargic and his little eyes were rolling back in his head. I took one look at this little baby and knew that if I did not help him now - he would certainly die. I took him and Paulo straight into the Baby Home and did some simple blood tests (since the Doctors had done nothing) and discovered that Samwel had Malaria, HIV and severely low Hb. But all these things are treatable. Then I undressed him and saw how severely dehydrated he was. I knew instantly that this little boy would die if he was not on a drip immediately so we took Samwel and Paulo to another hospital, demanded admission and got finally got Samwel on IV fluids.

But I guess, even then, I knew it was too late for this little boy?

This morning at 11.45am, Paulo came to my gate again. He told me that Samwel had died this morning at 11.00am and he came to ask me if he could pay me back monthly for Samwel's medical costs as he didn't have any money right now. I obviously told him this was not necessary and asked when Samwels funeral would be.

Paulo told me that he had no money to bury Samwel as he used all of his savings a fortnight before to bury his wife and they had not eaten since then because they could not afford to buy food.

Not only had this man watched his wife and baby die in just a matter of 2 weeks - but he also could not afford to pay for his own son's funeral?

When people here say they have no money - they literally mean none. Not one pound. Not one pence. Not some spare change in a purse or savings in a bank - not even a coin down the side of a sofa....they mean nothing. And they also have no means of getting any until the next pay day (if they are lucky enough to have work).

I hear stories like this every day....but baby Samwel broke my heart today. When I saw Samwel on Monday - he reminded me SO much of the day I met Haji. But we were 'allowed' to help Haji and we got to him just in time....and thankfully, we helped to save his life.

How I wish I had seen baby Samwel on Friday - maybe it would have been just enough time to save this little baby?
How I wish life was not so unfair....that babies did not have to die from simple diaoreah?
How I wish that medical services here could diagnose and treat simple ailments reliably?
How I wish that people like Paulo did not have to cope with losing his wife and child in a matter of just two weeks?
How I wish that I could just do more?

Baby Samwel need not have died. Despite the Doctors telling Paulo that his baby died from AIDS - he didn't. Samwel died from simple diaoreah. That should never ever happen ..... and yet according to UNICEF - in 2007, 23,900 children in Tanzania, under the age of 5 years died from Diaoreah! And in Tanzania, Diarrhoea claims more under-five children than AIDS, Malaria and Measles combined.

Today was a sad day. But tomorrow and tommorrow's tommorrow is going to be just as sad as more and more babies die from a wholly preventable and easy to treat illness.

As I said at the beginning of this entry - sometimes I love life here. Sometimes you really can help and I know that Forever Angels has saved many lives and brought happiness and a future to so many children.....but some days, and today was one of them....living here makes me feel so helpless and makes me realise that what we do is just the tiniest drop in an ocean of gross pain, suffering and total unfairness?

Rest in peace baby Samwel.

Just a quick one today as the lights keep flickering so no doubt we are going to get plunged into darkness very soon!

Tomorrow we start the refurbishments to our Baby Home Bathroom! It is very exciting - we are having small children's toilets, non slip tiles, showers and just (we hope) a more effective use of our bathroom space for 50 children!
It will be utter chaos for 2 weeks and then I hope we will have the 'perfect bathroom'....watch this space!!

We received a new baby on Friday evening. She is 14 months old and called Neema. She our 'Meet the Children' page for photos. She is settling in well and is healthy.

Sadly Elizabeth is going to go back to hospital in the morning. Her shunt is badly infected again and she has high fever. It happened so fast. She has been fine all week and this just happened this afternoon. She will have surgery tomorrow to take out the infected shunt but we will need to speak with the Doctors tomorrow about whether they think it is fair to put a new one in. All this little girl has ever known is pain and her future is bleak.....it is so sad to see her suffering again.
Please keep our beautiful Elizabeth in your thoughts.....

Rainy Season is now upon us meaning that we have lots of excitable and energetic children being kept indoors for too many hours each day....this is NOT much fun for anyone concerned!!

Fourteen of our children were vaccinated against DPT yesterday - so we have lots of grumpy children and quite a few fevers. It is effectively 'Winter' now, with the rains and cold mornings, so it is the time of year that all the Staff and children start to get sick with coughs and colds and chest infections.

Here is a photo of me with some of the Big Toddlers playing 'Dressing Up' - indoors on a rainy day.

We have had a new batch of Bethany Teenagers join us at Forever Angels - welcome to Agatha, Annastasia, Joyce, Zawadi, Kulwa and Romadi who are all aged between 14 and 16 and are our new D.A.V.E. Trainees. I will write more about them next week and add some photos...

Thank you all the people who sent / promised money to pay for some Shunt Surgeries for the children with Hydrocephelus at our Local Hospital.

As with everything else in Tanzania - it is never as simple as it could be! The cost of the surgeries 'suddenly' increased last week (from £30 to £100 each) and then the Surgeon was away travelling meaning I could not arrange payments with him. Anyhow - on Saturday I finally, sucessfully paid for the first 13 children to receive their surgeries. The first 5 babies were operated on on Saturday afternoon, and the remaining 8 on Sunday and today in the morning.

All of these children have been in hospital for between 2 and 6 months waiting for this surgery to be carried out free of change as their families simply can not afford to pay for it.

.....But the hospitals can not afford to pay for them either - and so they simply do not get done.

For children with hydrocephelus, waiting for shunt surgery results in more and more fluid building up in their brains and more and more pressure building up inside their heads. As this pressure increases so does the amount of brain damage. Many of these babies are already blind and deaf and many have severe brain damage.

We started to do surgeries for the babies whose hydrocephelus is not yet that severe - in the hope that after surgery, once the shunt is in place and draining the fluid, they will lead normal lives and not have any extensive brain damage.

Thanks to the support of my Mum and many other Forever Angels Supporters - these children should be able to go home and begin to lead somewhat normal lives again.

Here are photos of some of the babies after their surgeries yesterday....

They all seem to be recovering well and I hope, are in a lot less pain now. I hope that we have managed to save these babies from a future of blindness, brain damage and illness.

Some of these children and their stories absolutely break your heart....

These are 4 months old twins - Nyangoma and Raheli. Their Mum sadly died in childbirth and BOTH twins are suffering with Hydrocephelus. Their Grandmother is now their main carer and she has no job and is struggling to care for them. The twins were both operated on on Saturday - so hopefully it was done soon enough that they will be able to lead normal lives. I will support their Grandmother with Formula milk for a few months as the twins are both quite malnourished.



This is Wakalanga. His Mum is very malnourished and has not got enough milk to feed him. He is also severely malnourished and very dehydrated (hence his extremely sunken fontanelle) He also has severe Hydrocephelus. Wakalanga already had his surgery last week but I am not sure that it is working and this little boy is just so sick I am not sure he will make it? Please keep him in your thoughts.

Although we have helped 13 children so far - there are many others and the ones in the hospital are just the tip of what seems to be a very large iceberg. Here are some photos of other children at the hospital who are still waiting for surgery. I will hopefully pay for them but we are waiting to get medical advice about these cases as they are very severe and the children are already severely brain damaged and weak and may not survive surgery?

Here are 'before and after' photos of Pendo (my Mum paid for surgery on her spinal tumour last week) She is doing fine and she will be discharged from hospital in a couple of days. It amazes me that the local hospital is able to carry out such incredible surgery - but they did a marvellous job in Pendo's case.

Thank you to everyone who helped to pay for surgeries for these babies - it really is money well spent and literally is saving lives. Thank you.

We are selling Christmas Cards for £6 (for a pack of 10 cards and envelopes) including Postage and Packing.




We are also selling Blank Greetings Cards which cost £6 (for a pack of 10 mixed designs) including Postage and Packing.

All of the above items show very cute photos of some of the children at Forever Angels Baby Home and they all make wonderful gifts.

Please support Forever Angels by buying these items and please tell your friends and family about them.

For more information or any orders, please email Val Lithgow on val_lithgow@hotmail.com

Previously when I have been on Safari - I have taken photos and spent my time in awe and staring at the wonderful animals....but today was different....there are not many animals in my safari photos from today.....

This morning we had all twelve of our 'Big Toddlers' awake, dressed and breakfasted by 6.30am and ready for a day to remember.....

We were off on Safari....!

We took 6 of the Mammas with us (who were more excited than the children as they had never been to the Serengetti before despite it being on their doorstep!) and we all packed into the Safari cars with enough sandwiches and junk food to feed the whole of Mwanza!