Well, as I suspected - Mse and Mayega are very sick little boys - dehydrated and malnourished. They drank ok through last night but were still looking dehydrated and were too tired this morning to feed even with a syringe so I took them into hospital.

Thankfully my good friends, Christian and Irene Schmidt were back from their holidays and admitted them straight to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where they are both on drips to give them fluids, antibiotics to cure any infections and Mse has an NG tube as he is too weak to feed.

They suddenly seem even tinier with tubes and wires coming out of everywhere but they are in the best possible hands.

Please keep these little boys in your thoughts. They have already fought hard in their little lives and I just hope that they have some fight left.

Today we received a set of 19 day old twin boys!

They are called Mse and Mayega and they weigh just 1.7 and 2.08 kg.

Their Mum sadly died in childbirth and the father is not known so the Grandfather was left caring for them and was unable to care for them. He went to Social Welfare asking for help....and it has taken almost 3 weeks to get them placed.

They have been drinking cows milk since birth and are both very dehydrated - but they have tested negative for HIV and we hope they will thrive at Forever Angels.

The Grandfather was not sure which baby was which - so we have named the largest one Mayega and the smallest Mse.

I was only sayng yesterday that all of our tiny babies are now grown up....and now we have more!

Just a quick one today to remind anyone who shops on line - to shop via Easy Fundraising to help us raise money for Forever Angels.

Argos and many other high street stores are now a part of Easy Fundraising! With Christmas coming up in a few months - PLEASE think of us if you do any online shopping and before you buy anything - go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk and select Forever Angels as your Charity and we will then receive a percentage of the money you spend without you having to do anything!

Easy!

Sorry I have not written for a few days. My family and I have been on a well needed holiday to Bagamoyo (near Dar es Salaam) for a week with my Mum, sister and nephews. The kids all had a wonderful time and used up endless energy in the swimming pool and sea....and Ben and I managed to recharge our batteries a little.

It was good to get home to my 'Angels' though and I was so happy to see everything ticking along nicely. Thank you SO much to Chloe, April, Hayley and all the staff who kept everything running so smoothly while I was away.

We did have some good news while I was away as Philly was reunited with her Mum. Philly was our newest baby at Forever Angels. She came to us as her Mum had been put in prison for stealing and Philly had no one sles to care for her. Thankfully, her Mum was allowed out after only 2 weeks and so Philly was able to go home. We wish them both all the best for the future.

So now we have 39 children at Forever Angels and they all seem to be growing up so fast!! We have no tiny babies anymore and all the 'big babies' are crawling and walking and will soon be toddlers!

Adamu started crawling this week and is SO pleased with himself.

We have also had a few families come to the Baby Home who have been approved as Foster Parents and who are coming to identify a child to adopt. So very soon, we should be seeing some of our abandoned infants becomming adopted and finding their 'Forever Families'. I also know of a number of families who have just started the Adoption Process. Some of these familes are members of my staff and I will be thrilled if their applications work out and they are able to adopt our babies!!
So hopefully - we will be saying happy goodbyes to some of our children in the very near future....

Today was a good day for Forever Angels as Sarah returned home to live with her Grandma and siblings and was very happy about going.
It is always hard when we have to say goodbye to these children - especially children like Sarah who we have cared for for almost 2 years! We have seen her grow from a sick, malnourished and timid baby to a happy, healthy and clever little girl. The Baby Home just will not be the same without her....but she is now back where she belongs - with her loving family.

Sarah has known that she will go home for some months now and has always been excited about it. Today she was very quiet - but was very happy to be with her Grandmother and not sad at all to say goodbye to us which is how it should be.

We will keep in close contact with Sarah and her family. Forever Angels is helping to build a new house for them as theirs is falling apart and has no water close by, so we will visit monthly to see how this is going and to check that Sarah is ok.

Despite it being sad for us - this is what Forever Angels is all about - helping to prevent children from becomming orphans by supporting needy families and their children until they can be reunited.
Good bye Sarah - we will miss you......

Sarah saying goodbye to her friends:



Sarah and her family outside their home:

Well, it is almost official that in 2 months time, a third of Tanzania's electricity providers will no longer be providing...and there will be power rationing for all!

This happened temporarily last year and we had power here for only 2 hours a day!

We do not really use much electricity and can do without the fridge and cooker if necessary - but having no lights at the Baby Home during the night,early evening and early morning is dangerous and not at all fun!

Generators are too expensive to run so we are hoping to get Solar Panels which will give us lights all night in the event of a power cut.

The initial outlay is expensive - £6,000 - but if anyone knows anyone who knows anyone who might want to help us - please ask them to contact me at amy@foreverangels.org

Thank you very much.

We received a new 'Angel' on Friday - her name is Philly and she is about 18 months old. Her Mum is in prison and she has no other family to take care of her. Photos of her are on the 'Our Children' page.

Well it is turning out to be another busy week......

This afternoon, ChaCha brought Bahati to visit us. He was happy and healthy and very happy to see everyone again - but also very happy to go back home with his Mum which was lovely to see. He wanted to say a special hello to 'Mamma Orla' (one of our past volunteers) who he still talks about ALL the time apparently.
It was lovely to see him with his family and looking so well.





Sarah's Grandmother also came to visit today and told me that she plans to take Sarah home on Tuesday next week. She still has a problem with a leaking roof in her house so I have agreed to fix it for her.
We will have a leaving party for Sarah on Saturday and she is already very excited about returning home to her family.

We had a mini emergency this morning as Tumaini (our new child from Musoma) had a seizure and was then unconcious for quite a while. We took him to hospital as soon as he arrived (as we do with all of our children on admission to Forever Angels) and discovered that he had a urine and stomach infection and a low count of malaria. We begain treating him for these things and he has been fine since he arrived at Forever Angels. This morning he woke with a fever and then had a seizure soon after. We rushed him to hospital as he was unresponsive for quite a long time. He has slept most of the day and tomorrow we are going to take him for a brain scan.
The Doctor today seemed to think he had worms in his brain? But I am not totally convinced about this diagnosis?

April organised a sleep over for the Bethany Girls and our older toddlers at the weekend. They hooked up some mosquito nets in the Preschool and all had a wonderful time, talking, singing and eating sweets and chocolate. I do not think that April or Hayley got much sleep - but the girls all had a wonderful time!



Thank you to my Mum (Val) and sister (Karen) for their training sessions with my staff. My Mum did a First Aid course and Karen did a session on Moving and Handling - specifically in relation to Katy (our little girl with Cerebal Palsy)
The staff really enjoyed the sessions and we all learnt a lot. Thank you guys...





Oh - and as a last note to any future volunteers.....as well as the items on our Wish List - April in the Preschool would also like any of the following items brought out if possible....
* Body paint
* Safety Pins of various sizes
* Googly eyes - you know the craft 'eye's (white domes with a free moving black 'pupil') you stick on to make faces
....obviously these are not essential items - but if you do have some room in your bag - our Preschool kids (and April) will be most greatful!

Today we nipped into The Bethany Orphanage to visit Yunisi. She was very shy at first - but then full of smiles for the camera! It was great to see her looking so happy and settled at Bethany and obviously very attached to Sophia.






We were on the way to Musoma to collect two new children from Musoms Children's Home. This Home is only able to cater for children up to the age of 2 years - and they had one boy (Tumaini) and one girl (Bianca) who are both turning 3 years soon so Social Welfare wanted us to transfer them to Forever Angels.

Lizbeth, the Manager of Musoms Children's Home has already waited many months for these toddlers to be placed elsewhere - so I decided to drive there myself to collect them to make the transfer process faster.

It was lovely to meet Lizbeth and talk to her about her babies. She currently has 14 babies in her care.

Tumaini and Bianca are both very beautiful, well mannered children who, although shy at first - by the end of the 4 hour journey home - were smiling and laughing and full of fun.
I have just left them in their pyjamas watching television and they seem pretty happy and settled already.

Bianca


Tumaini


Giggles in the Car

Everything else at the Baby Home is going well. A new volunteer, Hayley, arrived yesterday so we are all happy to have her with us.
My Mum and sister and 2 nephews are also here for a month and have been hard at work at the Baby Home already!
Karen worked with Juma's family helping them to learn how to lift his sister properly (she is 13 and has cerebal palsy) and she really improved her wheel chair so she has a better sitting posture.....using (literally!) string and tape and bits of old foam!

My Mum and Karen have been 'rota-ed on' to work shifts at the Baby Home so are both getting stuck into a whole heap of jobs.

Sam and Max (my nephews) are proving to be a huge hit with the babies - Sam managed to get 3 to sleep in his first half hour!!