MEET THE BABIES AT THE ARISE AND SHINE CHILDREN’S CARE HOME

 I know we have written a lot about the project in the previous blogs but we have never actually introduced to you our babies at the AASU children‘s care home. We currently have 20 babies both able bodied and disabled children. We take on babies that are orphaned, abandoned or any other children in vulnerable situations. Some children will have parents but due to the financial situations at home, we take such children in our care with the aim of restoring them back to health and then later reuniting them with their families. Other children get adopted while others are put in foster care homes in the kibuye village to attend the Arise and Shine Nursery and primary school. Other than the children with disability, most of the children we take on are 4 years and below. We take care of them to the age of 5 and later send them to their foster families in Kibuye village. The disabled children stay with us at the Arise and Shine care home depending on the degree of disability. For some that have minor disability and can attend school with ease, we send them to the village for school at 5 years of age. But if the degree of disability severe then they stay with us and attend preschool at the care home.

At the moment we have 20 babies under our care. Most of them were malnourished and they have blossomed under our care. Meet our babies!

Joviah was 18months when she joined us. She is originally from Masindi district, her mother and father died from HIV/AIDS at the beginning of this year. They had 2 children who were left behind as orphans. Jovia and Phiona were then brought to Jinja district to live with their grandmother who leaved close to the baby home. The grandmother was always struggling to feed the children .she works in a small restaurant which pays her 3000 shillings a day not enough to sustain the needs of both children and herself. Joviah is on daily medication for her health condition. The drugs require to eat well before taking them. Her grandmother could not afford all this and joviah’s health was being compromised. When she learned about the AASU children’s care home, she sought our help in taking care of Joviah. We took her in when she was 18months and now she is 2 yrs old, a healthy child.

                   Phiona    Is 4 years old her and her sister are happily blossoming under our care. She is a very smart caring girl. At her age , she is interested in helping out holding little babies! She is always asking if she can hold a baby if they were crying .Am always amazed by her. Am so sure she will make such a good mama one day! She is still finding her real self, very quick in switching from grumpiness to happiness and that is our major concern about her. But again, she is 4 and she has gone through a lot more than some of us have seen. She was older than Joviah when the parents died, taking care of them when they were sick and also looking after her little sister Joviah while her mom was sick. And the last blow of seeing her loved ones die, then moving into new homes one after another. She is adjusting well to the environment.

 Pross  is a twin sister to Rose and also sister to Joan and Peninah. Their mother is Faith Nakisuyi from kibuye village. Her husband separated with her after getting her disability. Faith has 8 children and she is a stay home mom who solely depends on subsistence farming. She had been struggling with feeding children the past few years and always living by the mercy of other people who brought food for her so she could have a meal during harder times. Finally AASU took over the care 4 of her twins and also supporting the rest of the other children who are currently attending school in the AASU Nursery and Primary school. AASU has found a job for faith; she makes paper beads and now hoping to have a sustainable income with that. Peninah and Joan will be reunited with the family and hope with her

income, faith will be able to take care of the girls.

Rose joined us when she was 18 months old and now she is 2 years and 3 months now. Rose will live with us for the next two years and together with Pross at 5 yrs will be reunited with their family and will be attending the AASU nursery and primary school.

Peninah is 5 years old, time has passed so fast! She is at the transition age and will be joining the AASU nursery and primary school next year. She has tried on the uniform so many times as they were being

made. She must be excited about starting school soon.

Joan is a twin with Peninah, very sweet kind girl. Sad she will also be leaving us at the beginning of next year as she will be reunited with her family as well. But it’s good for the children to live in the normal African setting were children learn daily responsibilities and chores.

Mariam is 12 months old, her father is 70 years old and her mom is 21 and mentally disabled. Her father is ill. At the moment he is hospitalized in Jinja main hospital .Mariam has a brother but was adopted by an English family long before she came to live with us. We never got the chance to meet the parents. Of late, she has been struggling with malnutrition .First she was admitted in jinja hospital children’s ward. But even when she was discharged, she still got fevers and it was so clear that she wasn’t well. Of recent she has started getting cold sores so at least we know what she has. And we know how to help her. She is getting better, has gained some weight and learning how to walk! Mariam is getting happier each day.

Ruth is about 11 months old, born to a teenager 14 yrs old. On her birth, the father denied being her father and the mother didn’t have any income to support her. She brought her to AASU children’s care home. Ruth is blossoming under our care and fortunately the mom found some sponsors to take her back to school, her parents stopped paying school fees because she had given birth. But now she is back in school and will be reunited with her daughter when she finishes her technical training. Ruth is such a beautiful happy beautiful girl!

Fiona is one of our first children, 3 yrs old and has been living with us for a year now.  Fiona is a healthy happy girl; she has grown more and healthier during her stay with us.  Unless she gets adopting parents, she will be moving to kibuye village with foster parents at the age of 5.

Niina and Sari are twins. They have been sick with malaria, but now they are all better. Niina had it first and it didn’t show for Sari, we had to take her back for another test and it eventually showed in the test. She got treatment and now both of them are all better. Exciting news about the girls is that they have started making a few sentences! It is hard work to understand what they are saying but the sound brings joy to the ear listening! And I am so excited to announce that they are getting a family very soon!  I don’t have much to share about this, but will keep you all updated on how everything is going. For now please pray with us for God’s will to be done.

  

Venekent Is 4 years old now. He originally comes from Kamuli district around Namasagali village. His mother and father died a year ago. He has a sister who is disabled and lives in a different children’s home. We are planning their reunion every once in a while. He has lived with us for about 4 months and doing great so far!

Sharif   joined us 5 months ago; he is about 11 months old now. Sharif was brought to us by his dad, claiming his mother had abandoned him in the house after a disagreement with her husband. He came as a severely malnourished child and now his all getting better under our care; his been able to put on a few kilograms since then and  looking more like a healthy boy each day that goes by.

 Reagan : according to his mom, his father died in February this year. As a stay home mom, Reagan’s mom found it really hard to provide for Reagan. He joined us mid February with edema. He was so big we simply thought he was a fat baby. Little did we know that it was a buildup of excess  fluid between his tissue cells! A month later he started getting sick, after taking him to the doctor, we were educated about his condition. He was flashed down and in two weeks he went from fat to “too skinny”

That was a scary time but he is now getting so much better. He has started playing and gaining normal weight at the moment. Reagan is also trying to walk now!

Pia :  is 3 years now and she has the warmest personality one would ever see in a child! She welcomes everyone that comes to the baby’s home, always ready to hug them all! Her cheerful smiles keep the home very warm. She has lived with us for seven months now.

 Stella : Is one of the kids with a  disability, also supported by Bulungi Uganda. She will be turning 4 very soon. 

Stella seems to be growing taller and taller each day. She is also working out her way of getting around different things in her environment. Her muscles are noticeably growing bigger as she uses them often while crawling. We hope she can be able to walk some day.

Fahad:

 

is also one of our disabled children who was rescued by Renate (from Bulungi Uganda) one of AASU partner s that sponsors disabled children. Fahad was found in extreme vulnerable situations. He was severely malnourished and we all thought he would never make it. He joined us February this year.He

has become much healthier .He is our biggest miracle!

Hussein  : Unlike all the other normal babies, Hussein is a microsophalus baby and was born with his legs stack to his head. The whole of his infancy, Hussein was hospitalized and his legs were broken and put in a cast each month that went by during his first 5 months. I found out that no matter what we do to change his appearance, he would never be able to use his legs. So we have decided to leave him just as he is. He will be seeing a specialist to see if he needs any medication. Hussein is now 8 months and looks perfectly happy

.

Josephine: is 6 years old, both her mom and dad died this year from AIDS. She is our newest addition to the home. Josephine is disabled, cannt walk or do any of the fun things that other kids often do but she is always a happy girl. Thanks again to bulungi Uganda, we can reach out to the children with disabilities. Especially in a community where they don’t have so much support due to different cultural beliefs.

Little Robert was born disabled with both his legs and hands folded. As a child, Robert had never had a smile on his face and was always in pain.

The parents tried so hard to see that he gets a life by taking him to different kinds of hospitals but nothing changed. Various tests were made but no sickness was ever found in his little body. Despite of the test results, Robert always seemed in pain. He could not feed like normal children do; he seemed fad up of everything and could throw up each time he was fed.

After the parents trying all they could in vain, they decided to bring him to Arise and Shine Uganda. He was taken right away to hospital and the doctors said that he was only malnourished and needed extra feeding on special meals but first with very soft meals. So he was put on a diet of milk and some special food known as “E-pap” and at first it wasn’t easy for he could throw up still. But we never gave up on feeding him and time went on he started picking and stopped throwing up. He even started putting on a little weight each week. Robert was thriving on a special diet of milk with some added food nutrients, high protein porridge among other foods. Life went on and after some time he got a cough and was taken to hospital and various tests were made like the T.B test and still nothing was found. He was given medicine and he responded so positively to the medication and he was fine.

Robert was so loved, even though the parents were not able to care for him, the father kept calling to find out how he was doing and he was always fine not until he fell sick on the 9 of Aug on his fateful day. He fell sick early in the night and was rushed to the children’s hospital in the morning. The doctors could not diagnose any sickness and anticipated that it could be T.B because he was breathing so hard. So he was ex-rayed and results were supposed to come back the following morning. Unfortunately, little Robert didn’t make it to the results day.

He was put on medication as they were waiting for results and at around 11:00pm his condition worsened. His breathing was so rapid and whenever fed, everything would just fall in like in an empty tin. He didn’t seem to taste anything. He seemed too much in pain and was whining. So i rushed looking for a doctor to look at him, an injected and a drip was suggested for him. We thought the nurses would have been faster and more concerned about the ill child but that wasn’t something we would definitely expect from our public hospital. “this is a place where hundreds of patients are waiting in a queue , some losing consciousness and fainting, some in need of blood and looking like they would die the next minute while others are dying therefore you are not the only ones “the nurse informed us with a serious look  on her face while giving Robert the injection. Not long after the injection, little Robert passed away not waiting for the drip. I learned that sometimes life is just too hard to live. But above all, Robert is in the loving hands of his Father.

HIV/AIDS project

At the beginning of July, Sharon and I were talking about possibilities of different projects for the community outreach program. She came up with the idea to start a project about HIV and AIDS. At that moment I was so glad, something medical! Just what I like, because I am studying Technical Medicine. After a little conversation I was happy to prepare an outline of the project. We discussed the outline together and made a plan.

Laura, from the gender project, had a meeting with Fatumah (an AIESEC’er who worked for The Aids Support Organisation) about the possibility of gettig free condoms from TASO for the village. I told her about the HIV project and she suggested that i could come with her to TASO on the following day and talk about the project. After the meeting we were able to walk back to the house with 1000 free condoms; a good beginning of the project!

Marieke, after the glance at the gardening project, decided to join the HIV/AIDS project. She is studying Psychology and this was more useful for her. Together we embarked on the project with the first session in the Kibuye Village.

During the focus group discussion session, we talked about general information about HIV and AIDS. We asked the attendees about; HIV is, ways in which HIV is spread and its prevention. If they did not know the answers, we would give them more information. A lot of questions came up after that. One of the questions was from a guy who asked if one can get HIV from wearing an infected person’s shirt. For me that was one of the points backing up the importance of the project.

A Week later, we did a condom demonstration; a fun activity! After the demonstration we split the men and the women up so they could talk to separate people in line with their own gender groups. Men were really interested in the subject. Women were very open and laughed a lot, mostly because at a banana we used during the presentation. After the session every person got 9 free condoms. It was a good session despite the difficulty of the HIV/AIDS subject.

In response  to our suggestion, TASO decided to come to the village to test the people so that they could know their HIV status. On Sunday before the testing day, we had a session concerning details, how the test works. After the session we were advertising the testing day in the village so that everybody could know about it. We went to the church, to the different men centers in the villages, the school and the borehole putting up advertising sign about the testing day.

The 2^nd of August was the big day: the testing day. TASO came with 14 people of the testing team, including counselors and lab technicians. There was also a drama group entertaining the people who were waiting for the test. All the volunteers from AASU were involved in it during this day.

They were doing the registration of all people, preparing and cooking lunch for 48 people, doing surveys and the guidance for the TASO people. During the day a lot of people showed up to have tested. At the end of the day we tested 204 people and only 6 people turned out to be HIV positive.

After the testing day we visited TASO in Jinja to speak to one of the counselors to ask a few questions to which we did not know the answers . What should we answer, when a woman ask, what she should do, when her husband does not want to use a condom during sexual intercourse? Or questions about polygamy. During the sessions women were asking about the female condom. It sounded like the female condom could be the solution to the problem if men did not want to use a men condom. The counselor told us, they had the same questions, to which it is hard to answer. The counselor was sure, that female condoms were too expensive for the people. We also visited one of the lab technicians, who guided us around TASO. In the morning he was taking blood from people to check their CD level. CD level is the amount of antibodies in your blood against HIV. When this level is under 250, people need to take antiretroviral treatment otherwise they take different kinds of antibiotics. I helped him by calling the names and doing the administration. After lunch he showed us a laboratory. A small and simple place, but with almost everything they needed.

In the meanwhile Sharon arranged an appointment with coordinator of TASO. After the appointment, she made a partnership between AASU and TASO. The partnership includes 3000 free condoms every month, testing twice a year and giving the HIV-positive people possibility to get free medication. 

The last session in the village was about positive living with HIV. How do you cope with a positive test result? Can you do things to improve your quality of life then? Unfortunately people were really late (2 hours delay is usual). Because of that we were not able to talk about all points of the session.

The important challenges AASU still has to face:

·         To provide HIV-positive people from the village with free transport to the Kamuli hospital

·         To get medication in the health centre

·         To make people aware of the importance of protecting themselves.

Hopefully we were able to imprint a mark in the village!

Linda and the candle project!

Even though,  my experience with Arise and Shine will be completed next week, it isn’t hard to remember these past two months in Uganda. There are thousands of images and smiles impressed in my mind that can not be deferred in whole, but which have taken place so quickly that it seemed like just a few days ago I arrived. The first week has flown by. Between the smiles, games and playtime at the babies' home in Jinja, I dont know how not to become attached to so many smiles that require you only to play with them. After that i moved to the village Kibuye, as a teacher in primary 2, despite all my misgivings about the fact of being able to teach in English, I am amazed of the desire of these children who want to learn and improve and, also have fun. Well then I could not refuse the proposal of Sharon: "I have the right project for you." For several weeks I have been engaged in a project in favor of the ladies: the production of candles. Not having the slightest idea of how its done, I am amazed to be able to get something very similar to a candle,  on the first attempt, and then in turn will improve even more. The project was to involve only ten ladies, as the material (wax, colors, rope ...) has a considerable cost. At the proposal of the new project in the village, I found an interest in wanting to learn something new and useful at the same time. The process is quite simple: once the wax melted, it is poured into molds, where the wick was centered  and then you wait for it to  dry. And all is well up to here, the biggest problem arises when it comes to removing the mold from the candle because it takes time, patience and energy! But that certainly does not scare the ladies, because no matter how tedious it can be, they never lost their cool and have always been satisfied when they are able to get the candles. After a couple of weeks of training, I can say that the quality improves over time and I hope that soon we will be able to package and sell some to help support other projects of AASU.

It was an experience full of emotions: the friendliness and smiles of so many people saying hello, thank you and help you, remains the best memory of this time spent in AASU. I hope my small contribution may have been helpful for all the kids and the community of Kibuye. I can only thank all the people I met and with whom I collaborated in the past two months, and thank you very much  to Sharon for everything.  She patiently followed me and gave me the opportunity to be part of AASU. And before I wrap the sadness of farewell, a greeting and a hug to all and thanks again !!!!!!!!

NEWS NEWS NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Preparing an HIV/AIDS testing and counselling  session for kibuye village on Tuesday the 2nd of August!It will be facilitated by THE AIDS SUPPORT ORGANISATION Jinja,  together with AASU volunteers, about 200 people will get to know their status!

Will keep you up dated on this event, we are excited!!!!

SHARON’S BLOG.

I know it has been a while since we last updated the blog. Arise and Shine Uganda has been going through a lot of changes. And it is still adjusting to these changes at the moment. Our web site and face book page had to be deleted due to some technical problems that were associated with their formation. But we are glad to announce that our web site will be coming on line very soon and the domain name is already purchased as www.ariseandshineug.org. We also have a new face book page as arise and shine Uganda. Feel free to join and like it, if you have been previously following us on there. I have to say that all is well. In this Blog we bring both good and bad news. Beginning with the bad news.

A few weeks ago, baby Brian came to live with us at A rise and Shine children’s home. He was sick with a terrible oral thrush and cough. On his first night with us, we took him to the hospital just to make sure he got some treatment as he was not breathing easily. The doctor gave us sad news after his check up. He said that little Brian would not make it as the thrush had spread all over his insides. We choose not to take his word and kept fighting for his dear life. Getting him on treatment and loving him as much as we could. A week after, baby Brian was gaining weight and looking so much better than before. The thrush was ALMOST gone! We were proud.

During his second week of his stay with us, baby Brian still seemed ok .It was not until Friday night when he started getting fevers which we controlled with paracetamol. First thing the next morning, baby Brian was rushed to the hospital. While in the hospital queue, he was noticeably changing every 30 minutes!

We finally made it to the doctor who examined him and suggested some drugs for him through an iv. Poor little one, his veins couldn’t not be found, he got pricked so many times! It was so sad watching him in pain. Struggling so hard to breath. 5 minutes after the injection, baby Brian passed. He passed away on the 9^th of July 2011.

The doctor then told me he died from severe pneumonia. It was so hard to take! Having so many thoughts like, if only I knew he had pneumonia a week ago, if only he was put on oxygen on time.

Too many thoughts were going through my mind. But then at the same time, I got the understanding that we had actually tried all we could and it was just time for him to go. He was in so much pain and now I believe he is in the safest place. With no more pain, he is our little angel. And he will always be a part of us. We miss him but he is in the loving arms of His Father
.



Looking on the brighter side, at AASU we received 8 new volunteers who are working with us for a time ranging from 6 to 8 weeks. They are working at the baby’s home and the village projects as well for the rest of their stay . They will be working in the community education, supporting and facilitating livelihoods, helping community members set up back yard gardens of fruits and vegetables as a follow-up of the nutrition session that our last volunteers delivered in kibuye village.

Other volunteers will be continuing with the literacy project teaching community members how to read and write. They will be working with community members who have never had a chance to go to school.

Other ongoing projects include   candle making, beads rolling and the livelihood project. All these projects are under community outreach, with the aim of helping people in Kibuye village make an income for sustainable living.

Community members in kibuye village also attend literacy sessions which   give older people a chance to learn how to read and write.

These projects are lead by our volunteers who have devoted five days every week to stay in the village and help make a difference in kibuye and the surrounding communities. Members of Arise and Shine Uganda are so proud of the Volunteers as they all just seem to be a natural in Uganda!

Coming up next week: volunteer experiences and their ongoing projects!

Community Sensitization in Kibuye Village Kamuli District Vision and mission

On 2nd/ July/2011,  BAFNET left Kampala at around 9am in the morning and traveled to Kamuli district  in partnership with Arise and Shine Uganda (AASU) to carry out community outreach, Empowering community members in Kamuli District how to avoid lightening and the the first aid given to the Person hit by lightening and Community sensitization in a theme“Strengthening our partnership through community out reach”. This was a one day event and all members participated fully where over 50 community members turned up for the activities.

below the team departs to Kamuli by public means

Bafnet  members had a five hour drive to Kamuli by a Matatu/Taxi and later from the taxi park we took a special hire to Kibuye Village.

Members of the community gave us a warm welcome

The team started off by giving a brief introduction and later we embarked on the sensitization of the community members about Lightening the major activity of the day. Lightening has led to death to over 40 people, injured over 200 in different parts of the country in the last 15 days where the most affected are the children below the age of 15 years. (Our target was the whole community in Kibuye Village in Kamuli District in the eastern part of Uganda.)

The session ended at 3 pm and later we proceeded to Jinja at arise and shine home

At a round 6 pm we reached  arise and shine home in Jinja, we found when the babies are having supper/Dinner so  we spent 1 hour sharing fun with the kids, asking some questions the care takers

At a round 7 pm, Bafnet team left for Kampala after along day full of different activities.

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