For any volunteers coming out here in the near future.....or for anyone who is just feeling generous and would like to send a DHL box out to the Baby Home / or even just a small parcel to us - we are desperate for Nappy Liners (the disposible liners which go inside cloth nappies).....

They cost about £3.99 for 100 liners....so not much more than a Pint of Beer! All support would be most appreciated....especially by our babies little bottoms!

I first met ChaCha in the Social Welfare Office in 2007. She had with her 4 children ranging from 7 years to 7 months and she was there to ask for help. ChaCha suffers from epilepsy, which sadly, in Africa, is very misunderstood. People believe that seizures are the work of the devil and so ChaCha has been shunned most of her life, unable to find friends or a job.

I noticed that ChaCha had severe burns across her chest and I asked her about them. She told me that three months previously, she had a seizure whilst cooking and she fell into the fire. Her breasts were entirely burnt off, meaning she had no way to feed her newborn twins. Sadly, one of the twins died from starvation, but Dotto survived. She looked about a month old and I was amazed to discover she was actually 7 months old!

I went with ChaCha to her house and found her and her children living in utter squalor. She had one tiny mud brick room with not a piece of furniture. The floor had a few rags on it and one thermos flask.

Apart from that, she owned no possessions. ChaCha was prostituting herself to make enough money to buy her children food, but she usually 'made' less than 50 pence a day.

I persuaded Social Welfare to help this family as I wanted to try to help ChaCha to dig herself out of this poverty. Social Welfare placed her two youngest children at Forever Angels - Bahati (age 2) and Dotto (7 months). Her two oldest children (age 6 and 8) stayed with ChaCha. I gave ChaCha a job at the Baby Home as a cleaner and we rented her a new house close to the Baby Home as well as bought a bed and some clothes for her children.

ChaCha proved to be one of the most hard working people I have ever met. She is very uneducated, unable to read or write (we recently taught her how to write her name) but she has one of the best work ethics I have ever known. ChaCha is a cleaner - her job is not a pleasant one - and yet she does it amazingly every single day and has a smile on her face throughout.

Bahati and Dotto stayed at Forever Angels for a few months. ChaCha was able to see them every day whilst she was working. ChaCha fell pregnant again during this time and gave birth to Imani who also came to Forever Angels when she was just a few hours old because ChaCha was unable to produce milk.


I am sure as you read this, you will be wondering why ChaCha keeps falling pregnant and having more children when she is unable to care for them. I often wondered the same thing. Maybe it is due to a lack of education? Maybe she wants a big family to love? Maybe men force themselves upon her and she has little choice?

What I have seen over the years, is that despite ChaCha living in dire poverty - her children are very well looked after. They never appear hungry, they rarely get sick and they clearly all adore her.


About two years ago, ChaCha asked me to start saving some of her salary each month as she wanted to build a house of her own, instead of paying rent on someone else's tiny room. ChaCha religiously gave me back half her salary every single month for us to save for her...and over the last two years, her savings have grown to quite a substantial amount.

For someone with very little academic skills - ChaCha has her head firmly on her shoulders and knows what she wants in life.

In March this year, ChaCha came to me to ask for some of her saved money as she had found a plot of land she wanted to buy to start building her house. And every week since, she has come to me asking for a little more of her savings.

Today, ChaCha asked me to go and see her house with her and having a couple of hours to spare, I agreed. Her house is in the middle of nowhere....it takes her 1 hour and 40 minutes to walk to and from work each day! ChaCha could have built her house anywhere - but she told me she built there because she wants to have some land so that she can grow crops to feed her children.

Until today, I thought that ChaCha was still living in her old house until her new house had been completed. But it seems that she had to move out because her neighbours saw her have a seizure and thought she was bringing the devil into their village. So her and her 5 children are living in their new house.

ChaCha is SO proud of her house. She grinned all the way up the (very large!) hill as we walked up to it. She kept telling me that she has three bedrooms and the children are so happy to have their own space to play. She told me about the chickens she has bought and the maize she has planted.


When I arrived at the house - I realised that all ChaCha had told me was true....but the house was still only half built. The walls were almost finished, but there were no doors, no roof...it was a building site. There were however chickens running around, there was the foundations for three bedrooms and she did have a good crop of maize growing.

As we arrived, Bahati came running out of the house and into my arms. I was surprised he even remembered me! He happily showed me around his new house and as we stepped over rubble, wires, metal rods, chickens and their chicks, large knives and the occasional toy.....I didn't know whether to smile or to cry.

ChaCha has dreamed of this house since she was a little girl when she also lived in dire poverty. She has worked ridiculously hard for the last two years and saved every single available penny to put towards building her dream. ChaCha does not seem faltered by the fact that the house has no doors and no roof. She has a house. She owns the land. Her and her children are finally worth something. ChaCha is one proud Mama.

She told me that she has now run out of money and so needs to wait for each pay packet (at the end of every month) to complete her house. That will mean eating minimally so that she is able to put about £30 a month towards finishing her house.....the rains will come and go and ChaCha will still have no roof on her house, no bed to sleep in, no blankets to keep out the cold and 5 young children to care for in what all of us would call a building site.

So, you may be asking why I am inspired by this woman? Why does a woman who bears more children than she can care for deserve my praise? Why does a woman who is bringing up her children in a dangerous 'squat', often leaving even the youngest alone all day, need to be applauded and not reprimanded?

Because half of Africa live the way she is living right now.....in dire poverty....and do nothing about it. Almost all of them are 'happy' with their deal in life and do nothing to strive for more. They live in poverty their whole lives, watch their children die from totally curable illnesses and have no idea if they will eat each day....and yet, they are generally unable to do anything about it - unable to dig themselves out of the poverty they live in.

If you'd asked me who was the least likely of my Baby Home staff to succeed in life - I would probably have said ChaCha. Three years ago she didn't know how to hold a pen, let alone write her name. I would never have thought that she had the ability to save, to plan and to build a house of her own.

She is not there yet. And until she gets there, she and her children will suffer. They will shiver at night when the rain pours down onto their heads, they will probably get sick with malaria, they will feel hunger in the pit of their stomachs when there is no money for food because she is so desperate to buy just one more brick to complete her home....but ChaCha has a dream. She has a goal. And she is a strong woman and she will achieve it.


I can guarantee that in a years time, this family will be living in a completed house. They may not choose to furnish it as you or I would, and they may still be scrimping and saving and living day by day.....but ChaCha and her children will have security, a future and a home.

I am proud to know this family. Yes, I cried all the way home. Yes, I wondered what Social Welfare in England would say about a 1 year old and a 4 year old being left alone in a house all day, every day, while their Mum works, with no food, no shelter and sat among rubble and rusty nails.

I thought all of these things. But we don't live in England. In England, ChaCha would have been able to queue up at the 'Benefits Office' and she would have been given a nice, comfortable house for her and her family.

Life is not fair. In Africa - life is simply unfair for most people. ChaCha has had one of the most difficult lives of anyone I know. But what makes her a total inspiration to me, is that she is wholeheartedly determined that her own children will not suffer the way she has.

George looked SO much better when I saw him in hospital today - he has had a number of blood transfusions and is looking a much better colour. I hope we will be allowed to bring him home tomorrow....keep him in your thoughts.