Kibuye? Where's that?

Bernice Lin, a kind and hard-working volunteer from Singapore with us here in Uganda for 6 weeks, tells us about her time with Arise and Shine.

BEHIND ALL THE SILENCE!

It has been such a long time since we last blogged!  There has been a lot going on since you last heard from us.

Just to give you a quick update, all is well at Arise and Shine Uganda. Classes at our Nursery and Primary School have increased from 3 to 6! We now have classes from nursery to Primary 5 and from 50 students a year ago we now have 250! We are surely educating the village, raising Uganda’s future generation.

We are also building 3 more classrooms to cater for the growing number of students in the school. This is going slowly but surely and we hope that before the end of September these will be usable. We will be sure to keep you updated!

The Babies’ Home is also doing well. As most of you know, we shifted to a new home where we have more space and shade. The children are looking happier and happier in their new home. We even have goats, chickens, and swings!  Our garden is also coming along nicely and soon we will be enjoying delicious home-grown vegetables.

We all love the Arise and Shine Children’s Care Home!

News about the children!

In the past few months we were sadly overrun with measles. This was such a tough time for us at the Care Home as all of the children got sick. Thanks to Sara, Shane and Shannon for coming to our rescue! That meant a lot to us. This family helped bring us a lot of medical supplies and lots of healthy yummy drinks. Thanks a lot for loving and thinking of us at such a hard time!

We have also had more additions to the Arise and Shine family!  We had 9 children move into our home since the last time you heard from us. They are well settled in and thriving under our care.

Last month 2 of our babies got adopted! Mariam and Khadil got a forever family! They are now in America; we are so excited for what the Lord has in store for them.

Last week was very difficult for everyone at Arise and Shine. Sharif has been very sick; he was hospitalized for a week in Nalufenya children’s ward, but we are very thankful to have him home with us now.

Sharif is almost 2 years old yet he looks like he is 8 months old. His appetite is so low and his development is so slow compared to other children.

Sharif is not an active child despite already being a toddler. He doesn’t walk or crawl and doesn’t even get interested in exploring his environment. His favorite things to do are sucking on his thumb and sleeping. He eats so little considering his age.

Even after being with us for a year he still looks so malnourished! When the doctors at Nalufenya Children’s Ward were told about his history, they were so concerned about his growth. They have done so many tests on him at the moment, yet they cannot find out what is wrong with him. More tests have been requested to further investigate his illness, and they are looking into getting his kidneys, liver, spleen and heart checked out.

He also suffered from measles during the outbreak in April, but he is now recovering from this at the moment.

Sharif is struggling with an illness we are all not sure of. The Arise and Shine family is fighting to find out what is going on. We need to save his life. Please follow the next blog for updates about Sharif.

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