Forever Angels : Amy's Diary

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012- Volunteers Needed.....

If you love children and have ever considered Volunteering in Africa......maybe now is the time to do it?

We have very few volunteers in February, March, April or May and we would love to have some extra hands at the Baby Home.

You will live in a safe, well furnished house, receive good orientation and support, maybe meet friends you'll keep for life, and definately have the chance to be part of the Forever Angels family - giving love and care to some of Tanzania's more deserving children.

Please pass this on to everyone you know who may be interested to come and work with our beautiful children over the next few months.

Send an email to amy@foreverangels.org if you are interested or would like more information about volunteering.

Posted @ 8:40 AM

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Friday 13^th may be an unlucky day for some - but today was a good day for three babies who arrived at the Baby Home today to receive bundles of love and good care.

Welcome to Bahati, Zawadi and Emmanuel - three unrelated children who all happened to need a loving place to stay on the same day.

Emmanuel:

Emmanuel Chome Robert Myakalu came to Forever Angels on January 13thn 2012, aged 18 days old.

Sadly, his 19 year old Mum, Josephine, died from eclampsia / renal failure 3 hours after having a Caesarean section operation to deliver him.

He was born on December 17^th 2011 and as soon as his Mum died, his scared and grieving Dad ran away.

Emmanuel is a beautiful little thing (though screwed his face up in the photos making him look like a little old man!) He weighs 2.86kg and is very healthy and drinking well.

Emmanuel has an Aunt and Uncle and they are happy to care for him once he is a bit older and eating solid food - so we hope that he will go to live with them by the end of the year.

Zawadi:

Zawadi Mayuya came to Forever Angels Baby Home on January 13^th 2012 aged 4 months old.

Zawadi is a beautiful little boy, with big bright eyes.

He was born on 11^th September 2011 as a 1.8kg premature baby. He was being cared for in hospital but his Mum felt unable to cope with such a small baby and she ran away and left him and has not been traced.

Zawadi weighs 4.16kg and is 57cm long. He is healthy and very cute so already adored by all the Tiny Baby Mamma's!

We hope his Mum realises her mistake and comes back for her baby - but if this does not happen then he will be available for foster care or adoption.

Bahati:

Bahati Elisha came to Forever Angels Baby Home on January 13^th 2012 aged 13 months old.

Bahati is a very cute little boy, with big bright eyes - but he is very shy.

He was born on 13^th December 2010 and has been cared for by nurses in Sengerema Hospital for many months since he was abandoned there by his Mum. It seems he was cared for by a 'Mzungu' (Western) nurse as he clung to me and the Volunteers today and did not want to go to any of our Tanzanian Mammas!

Bahati weighs 9.06 kg and is 72cm long. He is a cuddly little boy who has obviously been well cared for in the hospital and so is struggling with losing his care giver - but we are sure that in just a few days he will be happy and settled at the Baby Home.

We hope his Mum realises her mistake and comes back for her son - but this seems unlikely now, so it is likely he will be available for foster care or adoption.

Receiving so many babies in one day is hard work - but thanks to our wonderful Managers and well practised systems in place, it was all very smooth going and the three new arrivals are all settling into their new home.

Posted @ 6:44 PM

Wednesday, January 11, 2012- A New Baby....and Formula Milk

Today we received a new bundle by the name of Danny Baraka Star!

Danny (named after our wonderful Administrator) is about 1 month old and was abandoned as a newborn baby in Mwanza. He was taken to Bugando Hospital and has stayed there for a month being cared for by the nurses. Last week they ran out of formula milk for him, and so we took the milk he needed into the hospital while they were processing his admission papers to the Baby Home.

Then today, Social Welfare called us to go to collect him - and what a cute little thing he is!

Danny is very healthy, drinks milk well and is very alert and active. We hope that his family will realise their mistake and come back to find him.....but this is unlikely now so he will most likely be available for foster care / adoption in the future.

I have been meaning to post about this for a long time now - but I keep forgetting. At Forever Angels we give all of our babies the best formula milk that is available in Tanzania. The brand which we can buy is called Lactogen.

This time last year, one tin of Lactogen cost us 8,000 shillings to buy (about £3.20), but now, the cheapest we can buy the same product for is 17,000 shillings ( £6.80). It has more than doubled in price in the past 12 months!

We use about 8 tins of Baby Formula every day to feed all of our babies (as well as 20 litres of fresh cows milk for our older children) and providing this milk is a HUGE expense to the Baby Home.

We would love some sort of financial help to purchase milk for our babies as (due to ridiculously rising prices) our expenditure is now double what we spent this time last year!

If anyone reading this works for a Business / Company who may be able to support us through their Corporate Sponsorship scheme, or by supporting us as their Charity for a year, to pay for our yearly baby formula milk - we would LOVE to hear from you.

The yearly cost is approximately £22,000 (for formula milk and cows milk)....so if you know anyone....who knows anyone ..... who could help us give our babies the best start in life - please contact me on amy@foreverangels.org.

Thank you.

Posted @ 10:42 PM

Tuesday, January 03, 2012- Goodbye Abdalla.....

Abdalla Hamidu came to Forever Angels on September 16th 2008. He had been living with his Mum prior to this, but she sadly got sick and died and no other relatives were ever found to care for Abdalla.

Abdalla has lived at Forever Angels for over 3 years now and he is a HUGE part of the Baby Home. He had some Developmental Delay and it took him a long time to learn how to speak and communicate with others - but he has come on so much in the last 3 years and he is a lovable, mischevious and beautiful little boy.

Today, Abdalla was transferred to Starehe Children's Home. We have known for a while that this would be Abdalla's long term home as he was never selected for adoption and at 5, he is now too old for the Baby Home.

We have talked to Abdalla about this for a few months and he has been to visit and he was excited to go to his new home where he will go to full time school and live in a family of 12 children and one Mamma.

We are always sad to say 'Goodbye' to our children - but with children like Abdalla who we have cared for for so long and who we have been through so much with - it is always harder.

Abdalla has got a wonderful smile which lights up his entire face and everyone at Forever Angels will miss him so much.

Abdalla saying 'Goodbye' to his friends at Preschool

Leila and Abdalla having a last hug.

(Leila is my youngest daughter and her and Abdalla are best friends. Leila adores him and he is the first person she talks about each morning. Abdalla knows she is deaf and is so loving and caring towards her and signs really well with her when he comes to play every afternoon.

These two are going to miss eachother so much!)

Abdalla outside his new house with his new family at Starehe.

I always feel that the children who have to be transferred (as opposed to returned to families or adopted) are our failures. No child deserves to spend their whole life in an Orphanage - but sadly, the adoption laws here are so strict that children like Abdalla have no chance of ever having a loving family.

None the less - Starehe is a great place and he will be well cared for. Abdalla has touched many people in the three years he has been with us and I feel privileged to have known this wonderful little boy.

Goodbye Abdalla - we love you.

Talking of 'Transferred' children - last week we took a visit to Mavuno Village and visited Pili, Sammy, Aika, Bianca and Michael who have all been transferred there over the last year or so from Forever Angels.

We were thrilled to see them so happy, loved, well cared for and attached to their 'Mum'. Mavuno is doing a marvellous job with these children and it was great to see them.

I promised photos of the new Volunteer House a while ago and didn;t get round to posting them....so here they are:

The Volunteers have settled into it well and it is very homely.

If anyone would like to Volunteer at Forever Angels - please contact me on amy@foreverangels.org

We have spaces available from now until May and then again from August onwards (June and July is already fully booked for Volunteers wanting to stay in our House)

Lastly, but not at all, least - we received a new child last week and I was away for a couple of days so I didn't get chance to post about him.

Meet 2 year old Leonard.

Leonard was removed from an abusive and neglectful home and when he arrived he was SUCH a sad, lethargic and malnourished child. Our Volunteers and Staff have given him bucketfuls of love and attention this last week and already the change in this boy is incredible! He is now talking and laughing and has put on a lot of weight already.

He now has a sparkle in his eyes and knows love. Photos to follow very soon....

Posted @ 7:43 PM

Monday, December 26, 2011

Well, another Christmas at the Baby Home has come and gone and a great time was had by all.

I have no idea of the actual number of people who came to celebrate with us yesterday - but there was somewhere in the region of 350 - 400 people.

The food arrived (not quite on time!), the sun shone, everyone ate their full and even Santa made an appearance and gave a gift to everyone!

It is always a busy day and we all came home pretty exhausted - but it was also a day to pat all of our Staff and Volunteers on the back and feel proud of all the children and families Forever Angel's has helped over the past 5 years and all the lives we have touched.

Pictures speak louder than words so here is a taster of the day.....

Getting into the Christmas spirit...

Lunch time....

Picnic Christmas Lunch!

Leftovers!

Gift time for the Baby Home children....

Some very special visitors joining us for Christmas....

Amos

Bahati

Deusi

Chacha's family

Dotto

Imani

Gerald

Haji

Lauren

Lubeja

Maggie and Baba Maggie

Noah and Moses with their Cousin

Neema. Baraka and Imani

Rebecca

Maua and Sabina

Seba and Omari

Tumaini

Zawadi and Margaret

It was so wonderful to see all those ex-Baby Home children looking so healthy and happy and loved in their families - and wonderful to have them come back to spend Christmas Day with us.

All of our Staff and their families also came and it was wonderful to see all their children (many who have been born whilst they have been employed at the Baby Home)

At the end of a lovely afternoon, everyone was well fed and Santa came to give all the children a Christmas gift.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped in some way to bring Christmas joy to so many wonderful people - to our donors and friends, to those who paid for a Christmas Lunch and to our Staff and Volunteers who helped so much to make the day so special.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and supporters!

(I actually had THE best Christmas gift ever as Meghan came back to spend Christmas at the Baby Home....everyone was SO thrilled to see her back and it made the day even more wonderful!)

Posted @ 3:09 PM

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